LED Lights to be the New Incandescent [Edit]

Now you can light your whole house with a (literal) handful of bulbs! A few weeks ago, Siemens announced a one millimetre led bulb with an output of 1000 lumens. For those who aren’t aware lumens measure brightness (candlepower), and Siemens says that “A 60-watt light bulb emits 730 lm, while a 50-watt halogen lamp has an output of approximately 900 lm”. Data projectors start at about 1000 lumens (focused) - in other words this is a really bright, really tiny bulb!

The bulb is bright enough, in fact, to be used for room lighting. While the LED technology is still both nascent and expensive, this is a huge leap forward in terms of environmentally-friendly lighting, since LED bulbs typically do not contain mercury, do not produce UV rays, and last longer and consume less power than even CFL bulbs. Gizmodo gets really excited for these things, stating “LEDs [that] are bright enough to light our houses and last 10 times longer than even halogen technology. We’re ready to upgrade”. Unfortunately, it will be something like five years before this technology is able to affect your energy bill in any big way.