In a recent video you guys spoke about solar panels and taking stress away from the grid and it got me thinking about LED globes because of their reduced power draw etc.
I bought a few LED bulbs about a year ago so I didn't have to replace them very often. I'm living in Australia now where energy costs are much greater than in the UK, and a standard 6W LED globe can be bought for around AU$20 (US$18.50). I understand that projects such as Hue and LIFX do add features such as a whole spectrum of colours and the ability to control from smartphones but do you think it's really worth it?
LIFX globes are US$99 each for both edison screw and bayonet fittings:
http://store.lifx.co/products/edison-screw
And the Hue starter pack is US$200 for the starter pack:
http://bit.ly/1k1Cevw
Do you think companies such as Philips should focus all of their resources into mass manufacturing LED globes that are simple, compatible and cheap instead of marketing expensive options like the ones I've listed above?
Widespread use of LEDs would also reduce electrical grid strain and lessens the material needed instead of replacing incandescent bulbs all the time. (I'll leave the carbon emissions thing out for the sake of neutrality - some people accept it, some people reject it and the climate change thing is very off-topic.)
I want to setup http://nanoleaf.me/ bulbs in my house. Its hard to just sitdown and invest that amount money in lighting. Its nice to see a kickstarter get on amazon. I'll have to start sneaking these in since my wife said she doesn't want ugly lightbulbs
Bulbs with wifi controlled from my phone? I'll stick with a light switch. Philips is "hue hue hue" at the amount of money they are making.
I know in the long term, it actually works out less than incandescent bulbs but trying to convince people to shell out that much initially is hard, that's why I think they should just focus on cheap and plentiful LED bulbs. I don't think they look ugly though haha, they look pretty awesome, more interesting anyway.
THIS would reduce electrical grid strain: http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/myshelter-foundation-lighting-up-homes-with-a-plastic-bottle-and-some-chlorine.html
They are currently very overpriced especially considering the cost of building your own using some high output LED's and a constant current driver. If you look at the specs of many LED's that sell for like $50, you will see that they have about $10 worth of components. Because not many companies are making them, the few that do, price gouge.
Furthermore, understand that high output LED's dim over time, generally reaching 50% brightness after around 20,000 - 30,000 hours of use (for the top of the line ones), so the usable life may not be as long as you would expect.
For many people the added cost will not be recovered in savings.
My apartment complex just refitted all their fluorescent dome lighting with LEDs. They're super bright in comparison, no warm up time, and looked like a relatively easy install.
The only downside is that now when I pee at night, I have to do so in the dark or my retinas feel the wrath of a billion lumens.