News

12/1/2008

CFL vs LEDs which will win?

What is a CFL and what is a LED, you might ask? The CFL is a compact florescent light bulb and the LED is a light emitting diode. Both have been around longer than you may think. The larger version of a CFL has been used in tube form in commercial, industrial and some residential applications for years. With the Federal Government passing a law that will require the manufacturer of bulbs to be 35% more efficient, CFLs and LEDs will become more and more prevalent.
LEDs have been around as the small lights on your watches, computers, and stereo equipment and have been used as larger versions in traffic lights, automobile lighting and billboard displays. Now they are being used in all sorts of lighting from flood lights to Christmas lighting. So where do the differences occur?
LEDs and CFLs use about the same amount of energy in comparable sizes which make them both at least three times more efficient than incandescent bulbs. A 19 Watt LED and CFL are equivalent to a 75 Watt incandescent bulb. CFLs may last up to 12,000 hours while an LED may last up to 60,000 hours. Additionally, LEDs do not have any mercury content at all while CFLs require a minuscule amount and require recycling.
Currently, CFLs are significantly less expensive compared to the LEDs; however pricing is starting to decline. LEDs come in different colors. For example, the multicolor LED Christmas lights are quite common, whereas CFLs are typically only white. Both are designed with a ballast to regulate the current. LEDs have a low Color Rendering Index of near 70 compared to the CFL which is generally near 80 on a 1-100 rating. The Color Rendering Index is used to measure how accurately a lighting source renders the color of objects.
Today, the CFL appears to have the lead, but the LED is catching up fast with technological improvements and growing economies of scale in production. Simply put, the current LED advantages are the life expectancy and their durability, but for now come get your free CFLs from URE.

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