The next cool kids lightbulb: The LED

Right now, all the cool kids are agog over compact flourescent lightbulbs. That won't last longer than the first report of mercury seeping into ground water at landfill sites, though. The AP writes about the next "cool kids" light bulb: The LED.

Established players in the lighting industry and a host of startups are now grooming LEDs to take on the reigning champion of residential lighting, the familiar pear-shaped incandescent light bulb.

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Much of that reduction would be possible with today's technology, using compact fluorescents, or CFLs. But consumers haven't warmed to them. The light quality hasn't been satisfactory, most take time to turn on and aren't dimmable.

The LED has advantages over the CFL in most of those areas, and judging by this week's Lightfair trade show in New York, it could be a serious challenge to the CFL in a few years. What holds it back is chiefly price, but LEDs are already an economic alternative for niche uses.

I am much more sympathetic to LEDs than I am to CFL's. That doesn't mean that LEDs are better than incandescents, though, at least not yet. LEDs still do not give off a terribly warm light. In fact, many 'white' LED bulbs still have an eery, bluish hue because of the difficulties in creating white LED light. While some advances have been made on white LED light, that young technology is still very expensive, leaving most people with the cheaper blue-white light that will sour them on LEDs. Additionally, LEDs do not yet fan light out in the same manner that incandescents and CFLs do. I'm sure there will be engineering solutions for that problem, but until their are, LEDs will still fall third in line behind incandescents and CFLs in their ability to light up rooms. And I hold to my belief that incandescents have come to play a part in household climate that is grossly underestimated. LED's will not make up for that loss of radiant warmth, either.