An OLED revolution? Organic LEDs

Early Flexible OLED Technology

Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) have been around for years, if not decades, when you consider research in universities and labs.  But only now are OLEDs reaching mainstream, and starting to turn up on consumer products (TVs, monitors, watches), advertising, and more.

So what is OLED, will it compete in the lighting industry, and what is its potential for the average household?

Four Myths of LED Light Bulbs

As with any emerging technologies, there are many myths surrounding LED lighting. Some make LED lighting sound terrible, and others make LEDs sound like a revolutionary technology. It is easy to confuse “potential” with “capability today”, and it is easy to confuse yesterday’s capability with an inherent flaw.

Today I’ll take a look at a few current myths that persist for LED lighting.

What is More Energy Efficient – LED, CFL, ESL, Incandescent, or Halogen?

In my quest to make my home as cost-effectively efficient as possible, I’ve spent a lot of time researching and trying different lighting solutions.

My first step was to use lights less often, my next step was to question how much light I really needed (i.e. do I really need a 100 watt bulbs, or is a 60 watt bulb enough?), and the last step was to replace bulbs with more efficient ones, which is a continual process.

You're probably thinking that LED is the clear-cut winner in the efficiency war.  Well, you may be surprised to find out this may not be the case today!

Why You Need To Learn About ESL Light Bulbs

Vu1 ESL Light Bulb

Just when we're all getting used to CFLs, LEDs, hybrid halogen/CFL bulbs, and all of the other new lighting technologies, along comes ESL, full of potential to revolutionize lighting....again.

With all of the fanfare over the emergence and potential of LED bulbs, you might be asking how lighting can get better.  LEDs run cool, are more efficient than CFL in many applications, and support new form factors and instant on like the good old incandescent.  What's left for lighting and how can a new technology find it's niche?

Well, CFLs and LEDs have their shortcomings, and ESL promises to address many of the shortcomings while offering all of the benefits.

Why New GE LED Nightlight Bulbs Are A Good Omen

I was surprised to notice a new offering at my local Target last week - a 2-pack of LED nightlight bulbs from GE.

I was surprised for several reasons - I hadn't seen LEDs at this Target before, I hadn't seen LED nightlight bulbs at any local store before, and these bulbs were marked as 2700K color temperature.

For under $6 I had to try them out - and my results were interesting!

Five Ways to Offset Your Holiday Energy Consumption

If you're like millions of Americans, you just completed setting up your Christmas tree and have strung holiday lights all around your house and yard.  And if you're like most people, you are spending $1.00 to $5.00 per day to run those lights.

Most people tend to run their displays from the Sunday after Thanksgiving through to the weekend past New Year's Day.  That is about 40 days, meaning many people are spending $40 to $200 just to run their holiday light displays.

How can you offset this usage?  There are many ways!

Efficient Landscape Lighting - Save $18 Per Year

I've thought a lot about LED lights in recent months, and the limitations LED lights have.

Then it hit me - low-voltage landscape lights are the perfect application for LEDs! I'm not talking about those solar landscape lights, which usually use LED, but traditional low-voltage  lights that plug in to a timer.

And it makes sense - brightness is not as much of a concern, color temperature is not as important in many fixtures, and these are lights that run for hours, meaning a quick payback.

A google search and check on Amazon revealed very few players, though Amazon carries an LED wedge base landscape bulb from a company called LED Wholesalers.

I ordered a couple to test, and they work great. I had been using 4 watt incandescent bulbs previously (the lowest wattage I could find), so I am saving about 3.5 watts per bulb (I have three in my setup, so 10.5 watts total).

The LED "bulb" is actually a small circuit board with 6 small LEDs - two on both sides of the board, and two pointing up.  This configuration provides a even distribution of light, and it is relatively warm colored (though not quite like an incandescent).

I schedule to turn off my landscape lighting for about 3 hours in the dead of night, so on average my system runs 9 hours per day over a year. Given my power cost over 500 KwH is 14.35 cents per KwH, my payback (after including shipping costs) is just under 3 years.

However, when I look around town most people are running systems with 5 or 6 fixtures, and generally use 7 or 11 watt bulbs.  In a scenario like that (we'll say 5 fixtures, 11 watt bulbs), you'd save 37.5 watts, or about $17 or $18 a year, and payback would be right around a year. 

Not bad for an easily overlooked power consumer!

Six Ways to a Green Christmas

Judging by the looks of the local Lowes, Home Depot, and Walmart, Christmas decoration purchases are in full swing.  While its tempting to buy those cheap incandescent lights (which can be purchased for less than 5 cents per bulb), you need to consider the energy costs in running those.  You'll find that LED Christmas lights will save money in the long run, run cooler, and be safer.

But buying LED lights isn't the only way to make energy efficient decisions for Christmas.  I've assembled Six Ways to achieve a Green Christmas.

LED Lighting Prices in Rapid Decline

It has been heavily reported that LED lighting prices are in rapid decline, and I noticed this first hand at Sam's Club last week.

About 2 months ago I purchased two GE 2.5 watt LED bulbs for $30. Today, the same package is $20 - a $10 decrease. These bulbs are only 80 lumens (relatively dim), but they work great in my stairwell footing light fixtures and in my refrigerator (which has 4 bulbs!). Point being, 80 lumens has relatively few applications, but if you have a good one you can expect savings.

My application is a stairwell foot light, where a 60 watt bulb was originally installed.  Using the payback calculator, these now will actually pay for themselves in their 10 year estimated lifetime, as compared to a 13 watt CFL. And they pay for themselves in just 3 or 4 years compared to the 60 watt bulbs that were originally installed. 

Those aren't spectacular numbers, but it is a huge improvement from a year ago.  If these gains continue through next year, we'll see LEDs starting to take some market share from CFLs.

News Roundup - LED Tech Breakthroughs, MA Rebates, and more

Welcome to a new feature of Home Power Saver - the News Roundup series. Periodically, as events warrant, I'll post recent interesting news stories in the world of energy savings.

Topics today include an advancement in LED technology that may lead to even longer life LED lighting and possibly some cost reductions.  Additionally, an interesting new study was released about home energy monitoring systems, and Massachusetts has a money saving rebate on a product that Home Power Saver highly recommends.

CFLs and LEDs and You - Part II

In part I we discussed why Compact Fluorescent bulbs make a lot of financial sense in most applications in the home.  And the historical issue of harsh light is mostly a thing of the past (if you remember to buy the correct color temperature bulb).  But CFLs are not all dim-able, still may not instantly illuminate when turned on, and often take several seconds to reach full brightness.  But after a few weeks of use most people adjust.

However, we’ve yet to cover perhaps the most controversial subject for CFLs, and haven't touched on LED lighting.