# Haters of CF lightblubs, have you tried LED's **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 21, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404 "2011-10-21T22:36:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/41 "2011-10-25T20:32:05Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > the LED and its circuitry produce heat which has to be allowed to go somewhere. How does the heat compare to an IC or CFL? It sounds like even if the heat is less, the LED circuitry means the bulb is more susceptible to failure from heat damage. The other bulbs don’t even have circuitry to be heat damaged. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/42 "2011-10-25T22:25:18Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > semiconductors handling large amounts of power need to be cooled or else they’ll burn out. even really bright LEDs are only about 2mmx2mm. If LED’s need heat sinks, what does that tell us about how much power they will use compared to CFL’s or even incandescents? By all accounts, LED’s use the least power of all, so it seems oxymoronic that they need fins. Can someone clarify please? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/43 "2011-10-25T22:53:00Z")
> [@](#): > > If LED’s need heat sinks, what does that tell us about how much power they will use compared to CFL’s or even incandescents? nothing. > [@](#): > > By all accounts, LED’s use the least power of all, so it seems oxymoronic that they need fins. Can someone clarify please? the problem isn’t that LEDs generate a lot of heat (they don’t, relatively speaking,) it’s that the heat they do generate is concentrated in that tiny little 2mm x 2mm diode. The diode alone doesn’t have any surface area to radiate or convect away heat, so we stick it on a piece of aluminum which conducts the heat away and can dissipate it from far greater surface area. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/44 "2011-10-25T23:04:37Z")
I like the savings from CFL’s particularly since my utility was forced to underwrite them for purchase. I’m paying for them anyway so I was buying them for 23 cents apiece. mercury is not an issue. I throw them in my hazards pile and turn them in with batteries and whatnot every few years. Yes it means finding a place to store them. I want to like LED’s but the cost is prohibitive and the ROI isn’t there yet. Also don’t like that they have to have their own little power converters. They seem to get awful hot for what they do. I’ve given some thought to installing a 12V LED lighting system in the house that I could run off a car battery as a backup system with the idea of connecting the system directly to solar cells or some other regenerative source down the road. I absolutely LOVE LED flashlights. Can’t have enough of them. I plan on replacing aircraft lights with them as the price comes down. Already have LED dome lights. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/45 "2011-10-25T23:14:37Z")
I love CFLs. I’ve had two of them that are turned on daily and have lasted over 15 years. I got my money’s worth out of them and then some. While the disposal isn’t convenient, it’s not difficult to bring them to Home Depot or Menards or our local hazardous waste depot that I visit every year anyway. That said, the next lights I buy will likely be LEDs. Even at the price they are now, the energy savings and long-term cost savings are probably worth it. I already use LED flashlights and headlights when camping. And a few years ago, I switched to LED christmas lights. 3M now produces a mat of LED lights. They’ve even demo’d a wall with LEDs embedded in it. LEDs offer a ton of possibilities. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/46 "2011-10-25T23:47:20Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > How does the heat compare to an IC or CFL? The heat generated by an LED _is_ less than the heat from the same brightness incandescent or CFL. Generally the power rating (actual power consumption, not the “equivalent” brightness) is a good indication of the heat generated, because even with the most efficient light source, a large fraction of the power is turned into heat. > [@](#): > > It sounds like even if the heat is less, the LED circuitry means the bulb is more susceptible to failure from heat damage. It’s actually the LED itself that’s susceptible to failure from heat. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/47 "2011-10-25T23:47:55Z")
> [@Chopper9760](#): > > Ugh, I hate CF lights! The light is so weak and weird, it bothers my eyes. They’re noisy, they flicker, they take forever to come on sometimes. Same here. I hate fluorescent, CF, LED, all that crap. The light is wrong, bothers my eyes, and irritating. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/48 "2011-10-25T23:50:24Z")
I hate CFLs, for the reasons others have cited above: the color of the light is unpleasant, it isn’t bright enough for reading or knitting or weaving or anything else that requires clear vision, and the start up time for many is too slow. I do have them in some fixtures, but mostly I have incandescents in the storage closet. I hope enough to last until LEDs come down in price. I am encouraged by the Philips light linked to above, and I’ll look for it and test it. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/49 "2011-10-25T23:51:42Z")
And in response to the OP - my only complaint about CFL is that even the “dimmable” ones can’t be dimmed very much. So I recently installed dimmable LED bulbs in my home office. Philips brand, if I remember correctly. They are excellent. The color is a bit warm for my taste, but it stays the same color when dimmed. ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/50 "2011-10-26T01:42:00Z")
I will be working tomorrow under LED’s. Some group donated LED replacements for the fluorescent tubes at the facility I volunteer at. My work requires reading fine print at times. As far as I can tell, the LED’s are as good or better than the fluorescent bulbs were. I don’t know the wattages, lumens, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/51 "2011-10-26T03:12:32Z")
I love CF lightbulbs, but I have mistakenly bought the “cool” version and, while it makes things bright enough, objects are slightly yellow around the edge of the shadows, so it’s weird. But the warm ones are just fine. I had some in a room that was dark but used a lot–and I stay up late. The incandescents burned out typically after about three weeks. I had the CFs in there for five YEARS. Then I moved. They’re probably still there. Another place, I had a dining room chandelier thingy where the bulb was extremely hard to change. CF, bingo, problem solved, apparently forever. I have only had one go bad, and it went pink within a couple of days. The only thing I don’t like is that, after awhile, you have to wait a few minutes for it to be really light. Also I think they lose wattage or something very slowly, but they’re obviously still lit so don’t get replaced. Or maybe I’m just going blind…slowly. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/52 "2011-10-26T04:10:34Z")
> [@Noelq](#): > > Same here. I hate fluorescent, CF, LED, all that crap. The light is wrong, bothers my eyes, and irritating. Again, they have CFL’s in all the normal spectrum, including some which duplicate incandescents. LED’s also have a quite different spectrum even than the regular cheap CFL. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404/53 "2011-10-26T04:49:24Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > the problem isn’t that LEDs generate a lot of heat (they don’t, relatively speaking,) it’s that the heat they do generate is concentrated in that tiny little 2mm x 2mm diode. The diode alone doesn’t have any surface area to radiate or convect away heat, so we stick it on a piece of aluminum which conducts the heat away and can dissipate it from far greater surface area. Also, incandescents literally beam much of their heat away in the form of infrared light. LEDs produce very little IR and so the heat they do produce must be dissipated locally. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/haters-of-cf-lightblubs-have-you-tried-leds/600404.md?page=2)