LED lighting is more prevalent than I thought
I had no idea that LED lights were as widely available as they are. There are plenty of sources available and it is interesting to see the variations in the way the various manufacturers get things done. The implementation problems with LED lights are three-fold:- Heat dissipation - high power LEDs produce heat. Too much heat reduces the life of the LED.
- Luminosity - LEDs, even large one's, are relatively small. To generate a lot of light, you need several LEDs in an array. For lighting scenarios, you also generally need high output LEDs and the high output LEDs generate more heat.
- Directional Lighting - LEDs are not like light bulbs in that they do not have 360 degree output.
What brought me back here
I was actually doing a bit of research into making a fiber optic star ceiling for the underside of a loft bed that has become my latest project. Here's a picture along the lines of what I'm talking about:
There are a lot of kits out there, but the kits are typically packaged for an entire room and I don't need that much coverage. The kits are also quite expensive. I looked into just buying fiber optic cables and found some reasonable sources, but when I looked at light sources for the cables the cheapest I came across was $170. Nearly $200 with tax and shipping for a bright LED, a resistor, and a power supply?!? I decided to roll my own and that's when I started looking at LED selections again.
A few LED bulbs
I came across two bulbs that interested me - the first was another of the 100 watt variety - perhaps this is the result of Osram's work -
From what I understand this uses a single 10 watt LED. I found the image interesting because of the design they put together. It looks like the is surrounded by a reflective surface, with an outer core that looks to be a copper heat sink. 10 watt LEDs are hard to find so I wonder if what I read is wrong. I have heard of 10 watt LEDs being on expensive flashlights and camcorder lights, so maybe it's true. I'm curious as to the effectiveness of that particular light as a lamp-replacement bulb.
Another product I found uses a rather large array of LEDs:
I found this one interesting because they resolved the directional problem essentially by pointing LEDs in all directions. I also found it interesting because rather than using a small number of high power LED's, it looks like they went for a large array of inexpensive LEDs. I would be interested in how much energy this particular bulb consumes.
Roll Your Own
Also on my mind is the idea of building my own to see if it's possible to do something useful in the general household for less than $30. Heck, using spare parts I might just be able to do it for under $5.I surfed over to Team Droid and noticed they had a set of instructions for hollowing out a light bulb. I also noticed a few people had used the instructions to build battery operated led bulbs. The next time my office bulb burns out, I think I'm going to give building my own a try. I'm thinking 3 banks of relatively cheap white LEDs should do the trick (in an equilateral triangle), the only problems would be detaching the base of the bulb clean enough to re-attach it, and converting the voltage down to a reasonable number in such a confined space.
If it works out, I might start slowly replacing the floods in my recessed lighting. I absolutely hate replacing those bulbs and I'm sure they consume a lot of energy.
Talk About More on LED Lighting
