LED Lighting and Sticker Shock

   On Friday Melissa and I went up to the "big city" to do some shopping. We needed a few supplies from the big construction store and made that our last stop before heading home.
   As we walked down the first aisle I spotted light bulbs  and remembered that Melissa had one missing from her sewing room. We had talked to a solar company while at the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show and one of the things he talked about was how much brighter and even more efficient LED bulbs are over CFL's (compact fluorescent light).
   After studying the lighted display, and recovering from the price shock, we chose 3 different bulbs to try out.  One of the reasons we decided to go ahead with trying them out is that they come with a 5 year warranty and when starting prices are $9.97 a bulb, a warranty is needed!
   The bulbs we chose for our trial are an 8W (40W equivalent, 429 Lumen - $9.97), a 13W A19 Daylight (60W equivalent, 950 Lumen - $25.97) and a 16W BR 40 (90W equivalent, 950 Lumen - $34.97).  I know, absolutely ridiculous, right?  Maybe not.
   Let's talk a minute about the alternatives, regular light bulbs and CFLs.  The obvious disadvantage to a regular bulb is the amount of energy required to operate them, 47W/hour/bulb adds up in a hurry.  CFLs on the other hand are only a few watts more per hour and relatively speaking, are still quite a bit cheaper, but the kicker here is they all contain MERCURY; you know, that crap the government was trying to get out of our environment until China started selling us CFLs.
   The reason we want to try out LED lights are to reduce our electric bill and our power consumption.  I SO want to go Solar. And, I hate where CFLs are made and the fact that they contain Mercury.

   THE TEST AND MORE ON THE BULBS

   First, we put the 13W bulb in the corner of the sewing room. It is much smaller and lighter than the floodlight-shaped 16W bulb with the same Lumen measurement. (A Lumen is a measurement of light emitted).  It did a pretty good job of lighting the area around it.  We then replaced the 13W with the 16W bulb and there was a noticeable difference.  The floodlight-type shape of the 16W bulb seems to spread the light a little further.  It is a good choice for the dark corner of Melissa's basement sewing room.  We have 2 lights for the long basement hallway and I replaced the burnt out light first with one of the 2 8W bulbs we bought and tried it out.  The area around the LED light was noticeably brighter than the area around the CFL, so I changed it out too.  This was our plan since our son frequently leaves this light on all night long.  Next I replaced one of the bulbs over the kitchen island with the 13W bulb and the difference was immediate!  The fixture is one of those enclosed globe-type fixtures, tight to the ceiling, that takes 2 bulbs.  The LED bulb is a brighter blue-white light compared to the soft yellow of the comparable CFL that is in the fixture with it.  We will be getting another of these bulbs for the other side of this fixture.  At $25.97 I think that's saying something about the light output.  Note: These lights put very little light out behind them. They don't reflect very much off of the ceiling, for example.
   The next test is longevity - time will tell.