[Christ]

Originally Posted by pugmanic

Hi, I have looked into LED bulbs in the past because they sound like they offer the ultimate solution. A massive saving in electricity, comparable light and vast lifespan - Brilliant! Or is it? The simple truth is no.

LEDs do not offer a comparable light source to conventional bulbs. They have a lower luminosity and are also a very focused light, meaning that they are only really good for spots, or torches and the like.

The lifespan is also an unfortunate fallacy. The LEDs themselves have a reasonably long life span, however the electronics that control them in bulbs do not.

I hope that as with many things the quality and quantity of the bulbs is increased giving better reliability and a realistic cost saving. The latter is also never guaranteed as someone has to make a profit somewhere along the line.

Yes, LED's are normally uni-directional. The easy fix to this if you're making your own bulbs is to flatten the round tops of the LED, so that they disperse light, rather than pointing it.

If you really have an issue with filing your LED's, and you're building your own light array, consider the area that you're trying to illuminate, and build the array accordingly. Don't place all the LED's in the same orientation if you're not looking for a spot light, instead try placing them in a "bulbous" array... which might make the light pattern appear closer to a typical incandescent bulb.

Given the proper control electronics and quality of manufacturing, an LED bulb could provide more light watt for watt than a typical incandescent bulb.