Quote:
Originally Posted by gasstingy
...the CFL vs LED comparison in the store shows LED's producing the same or slightly less lumens for about the same energy consumption as a CFL. Still, some folks {here} brag about them.
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At this point in the development of lighting technology, this is true, CLFs do produce more light (by a smallish margin) than LEDs. However, LEDs usually have small lenses build into the LED or used in conjunction with the LED, so that the light is directed to where you want it to be.
I had a conversation with a lighting engineer (I didn't even know there was such a thing) who pointed this out. He worked on things like lighting parking lots, and public spaces. He said that even though CFLs put out more light, LEDs were what he usually used for his projects, because of the directionality and the longevity (avoiding bulb-changing costs).
In a home, you may want to use indirect lighting and bounce small CFLs off of the ceiling for room fill light (because of their slightly better output and lower cost), and use a few LEDs strategically placed for task lighting (because of their directionality and longer life). LED lights have better contrast (because of their small source size) which is desirable for task lighting. There are LED lights that are composed of very many small LEDs all soldered together. They have a less contrasty, less directional light and have a light quality similar to CFLs, only with lower lumens per watt and higher cost.
Different types of light have their own advantages and disadvantages and should be used accordingly. This isn't a horse race, at least not yet.
At some point, LED costs will fall much further, and light output per watt may increase too... then CFLs will clearly go the way of incandescents.
-AC