About
My name is Jim. And I’m an energy hog.
But I’m trying everything I can to get clean. I bought a Toyota Prius in 2002. I installed solar photovoltaics on my house in 2005 and solar hot water in 2007.
I’m fascinated by the potential of LED lights, also known as solid state lighting. While solar PV, residential-scale wind, fuel cells, and many other promising options are out there, LEDs are in the market now. Granted, they are limited to niche items and specialty applications, but they are real products now and they will continue to grow.
The point of this blog is to help others like me learn about the products, and especially know what they are really good for. So I’ll be buying and testing a lot of products, and letting you know whether they are ready from prime time or are still science projects.
Join me on what will be a fascinating journey for the next few years as we see a revolution in lighting.
My husband and I bought a Toyota Highlander Hybrid last summer and, though it wouldn’t be the greenest choice for everyone, it does everything we need our vehicle to do including decent mileage in city driving, so we manage with one car (and a bicycle) instead of two. We also bought LED nightlights for our house and love them, and gave LED Christmas lights as gifts last year.
I’ll look forward to learning more about LED at your site. Thanks for showing what can be done!
Hallo, Marine aquarium lights are abour 10000 to 12000K are there any LEDS in this range for general sale. i wish to replace a 170 watt metail halide with LEDs. Any informatoion would be appreciated thanks. Syd
You can find a quality LED Aquarium Light to replace metal halides at:
http://www.ledsupply.com/solaris.php
These include a controller to change color for daylight effect, as well as intensity.
Cool site! I’ve added a link to my site to this, and will point people here.
http://solidstatelighting.wordpress.com/
Hi Jim,
Fantastic blog. If you ever do another list of LED links, here is a lovely online shop that I’m involved in: http://www.ledlightingsupplier.co.uk/
I’m also going to add a link to your blog from my own Eco Friendly blog: http://www.gogreenproductsshop.info/
Sharon
Thanks for stopping by Jean! Come back soon! I like your shop and blog — and thanks for the tip on the UK site. One of the ideas on my editorial plan is to review online shops that sell LED products.
I bought a couple of outdoor LED lights for our entryway (http://www.affordablelamps.com/acc-23060led.html) and the color is too cool. Can the bulbs, which are exposed, be painted or otherwise to warm them up?
Thanks!
Good question Scott. I tend to doubt it, because the “coolness” of the light has to do with the composition of the chips at the heard of the LED, so painting or tinting the covering may not do much to change it. Check my posts on Color Temperature http://ledlightsathome.com/2007/12/07/a-lesson-in-color-temperature/ and Color Rendering Index http://ledlightsathome.com/2009/08/25/color-rendering-index/
As more bulbs come on the market, they are including more of this kind of information to help consumers make more informed choices. The DOE also has an initiative to standardize these types of measurements — a topic I hope to write about soon!
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Jim
I am an optical scientist and inventor, and just about to release a 2×2 LEDceiling tile for hanging or suspended ceilings. Patent filed in early Feb. and UL testing in the next several weeks. A ton of uniformly distributed light out for 40-45 watts in.
Would you be interested in testing a prototype?
glowingly
ed sinofsky
LEDceilingtile.com ( site not up yet)
Nice Blog!
LED 2.0 delivers LED lighting Designs. We feature modular electronic drivers and LED light sources:
led20.com
Thanks,
Perry
I like your blog! Lots of great information.
It was helpful when choosing the LED Light bulbs to replace the incandescent bulbs in my home. In the end, I found a store with great prices on LED light bulbs that produce the kind of warm light I was looking for at
http://ledlightforhome.com
Pleased homeowner,
Carol