[solarguy]

I use incandescents to drive my food dehydrator. Cheap, available, very efficient at making heat (approaching 100%), the right sizes, adjustable (4 lamp bases, use what you need, change wattage, etc.)

I use CF in most of the house.

Haven't found the exact right combination of lumens/$ for "corncob" LED lights for the house, but I keep looking.

One of my church buddies is expanding into sales of LED's for industrial lighting of refrigerated warehouses. Follow along...

Right now, the warehouse is using high pressure sodium, and it takes several minutes to attain proper brightness. As a consequence, they have to leave them on all the time so the fork lifts can do their job. But they have to pay the refrigeration bill to remove all that excess waste heat.

Roger's LEDs are instant on, so they wire up each aisle with a motion detector. When the fork lift heads down aisle, it lights up as needed, and shuts off shortly after he leaves. They save electricity on the light itself because it's more efficient, and a lot more because it's only on a fraction of the time, not 100%, and save much more electricity on the heat-not-produced-and-not removed.

He has some samples that physically fit in conventional 4' fluorescent fixtures, but you have to remove the ballast. They run on straight 120V.

He is working on some of the local grocery/big-box stores, but they are intimidated by the high initial cost, despite the long term math looking very attractive.


Interesting times we live in.

troy