Does anyone use LED light bulbs?

[Tradd]

I know some folks are concerned about the mercury in CFL bulbs. Has anyone used LED bulbs? If so, how do you like them, light quality, etc.?

[razz]

I have the ones for nightlights only at present. When the price comes down some more, I will buy the bulbs.

[redfox]

A few. I like them. If I had the $$ to be part of the early adopter curve, which largely funds the R&D of new technologies, I would buy more.

[Bronxboy]

At Costco, 40W incandescent equivalent LEDs (I believe 4W) are at a price I would pay to try them out (about $8 each), but I have little reason to buy that size.

I'll buy a package to see how they work when they sell a 60W equivalent for the same price. I can't imagine using them regularly until they mix in a couple of red/yellow LEDs for a warmer color.

[Rosemary]

I bought a 3-pack of 40W-equivalent LED lightbulbs about 2 years ago for something like $20 and put them in our exterior lights. One of them lasted only a year or so, but the other two are still going strong. The light from these does not seem to be as intensely blue-white as the clear holiday LED lights - perhaps the glass bulb over the LEDs is a slightly more yellow color.

Otherwise, they are far too costly for me to consider. We have CFLs everywhere and when they burn out, we recycle them.

[puglogic]

They are so much more efficient than CFLs that I'd buy a lot of them if I could. I too am watching the prices, and as we burn out bulbs I may consider LEDs, one by one (rather than buying a ton of them all at once). I too wish there were some warmer ones.....anyone seen a warm version out there?

[herbgeek]

I saw some good looking ones in an aisle-side demo at Home Depot the other day, for $7 a pop, but of course, they were all out of stock. ;)

[pcooley]

We've been replacing our CFL's with the $25 Philips LED bulbs from Home Depot. (The ones that look yellow when they are off.) I'm very happy with them. The light is similar to the better CFL's.

[loosechickens]

We use LEDs in all our high use, reading and computer desk lights. Not just for the high quality light, but for the fact that the electricity they use is hard to measure as they use so little, something that is important when you live on a system powered by solar photovoltaic panels and golf cart batteries.

We have one CFL lamp in the living room, preferring that for ambient lighting in the lamp, as the LED light, while great for tasks, is awfully bright just for background lighting. We also have several halogen bulbs in lesser used fixtures, and a few 12v. fluorescent fixtures.

Ours were purchased back in the dawn of LED lighting, before they were commercially available, from a guy in Phoenix who made them in his garage, and they were quite expensive then, I seem to remember about $30 each. That was years and years ago, and they are all still doing fine.

Now that they are available and far less expensive, it's a no brainer, to me.....I see the CFLs as a "bridge technology", myself, soon to go by the wayside and being replaced by LEDs and whatever new thing comes after them.

[Bronxboy]

Now that they are available and far less expensive, it's a no brainer, to me.....I see the CFLs as a "bridge technology", myself, soon to go by the wayside and being replaced by LEDs and whatever new thing comes after them.

I belive you're right about this. In a decade, CFLs will be the avocado or harvest gold refrigerators of the 00s.

[Mer05]

I don't have a strong lighting design preference, and use CFLs everywhere. (Except in fixtures that make that buzzing noise with CFLs, but I don't have any of those at the current place.) I'll probably start looking at LEDs next time I have a burnout. ...Maybe the next time I have a single-bulb burnout; I think my oldest bulbs are in a four-bulb fixture.

A frugality blogger I follow just had a post about lighting, comparing LEDs, CFLs, halogen, and incandescent bulbs - with pictures and so forth (here (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/03/05/so-i-bought-you-a-40-light-bulb-today/)). He also gave CFLs a decade.

[herisf]

Anyone know if LEDs have come out yet in a full-spectrum option? I live in northern Washington state, and found after moving here that I have a tendency towards depression. Using full-spectrum lights has helped tremendously with my cheerfulness, so am slowly replacing all regular bulbs with full spectrums - but would love the energy savings of LEDs. I suspect, though, that I'll have to wait for quite awhile before they come out! I was just hoping a bulb manufacturer has thought about those of us who need this option.