I agree with oil pan. CFLs and LEDs have about the same amount of light output (lumens) per electricity used (watts), but LEDs last 3-4 times longer.

For those applications where safety, difficulty or inaccessibility are present, I will use an LED - even though they are 2-3 times more expensive.

My wife actually really likes the slower warm up of the CFL in the bedroom as the harsh LED instant on "flash" bugs her (and me too).

Steve

The LEDs I've used also dim a fair amount better than CFLs if that is your fancy.

I also don't like the instant on bash you in the face brightness and love my slightly older CFLs that take a few seconds to warm up in the bathroom.

I was under the impression that CFLs generally used about twice as much power as LEDs..
(for the same lumens of output).

Here is some LED vs. CFL data, a couple years old, but it shows some comparisons of light output, watts required and bulb life length.

LED vs CFL -- Which Light Bulb is More Efficient? | CleanTechnica

The more recent LEDs are getting better at the lumens/watt efficiency, but overall, there is not a substantial difference between the two.

The BIG difference is bulb life length with many LEDs asserting 40,000 - 50,000 total hours. I think the $0.86 cost for a CFL is a misprint.

Steve

My CFLs aren't the fancy low power models.. I only got the CFLs they had in stock since about 2011ish..

These power numbers look more like the LEDs and CLFs that I'm using right now..
http://iconnectdots.com/wp-content/u...07/why-led.jpg

Crash!!
 

Hey, my LEDs came in today!!
Trick packaging from Home Depot - YouTube

That's about what I pay for bulbs at a reasonable price. On sale they're closer to ~$.25 to $.50 each. On the flip side, I haven't paid nearly as much for the LED bulbs I've purchased either (~$3-$20 per bulb depending on the specifics).

I haven't seen these mentioned yet, but Walmart released their own branded version of LED light bulbs a few weeks ago.

So far I've tried the 60w eq bulb and the 65w eq flood light bulb, both seemed very satisfactory.

60w eq $8.88 a bulb
65w eq $14.50 per flood bulb

Pretty decent price, come with a 3 yr warranty (maybe 5), rated for 22,000 hrs however they are made in china.

They do seem like a solidly made bulb, but time will tell.

Folks, one thing worth noting for RE: CFL. If you manage to get it to serve over 1/2 of it's intended service life (e.g. 5 ~6k hrs, assuming that it's capable of up to 10k hrs nominal service life), it would have dimmed by about 30% when compared to it's original (hr zero) state.

My best CFL record kept (with slight mod to the PCB--replaced the vulnerable lytic capacitor with long service life ones) was about 7k hrs (Luminus, bought from costco Canada) before the film capacitor failed. By then the tube already dimmed by 30% or so.

I don't believe LED would suffer from gradual dimming over time but would simply die(flickered and then cut off, or simply cut off completely...all depends on the driving circuitry designs) but should be able to maintain it's brightness throughout it's usable service life.

My 2c's worth.

Q-TD

It might be the power surges or something, but CFLs just don't seem to last in this house.
I've lost a few LEDs too, but they were replaced by the store (Lowes).