Dollars & Sense: On the lookout for LEDs

Energy-sipping, money-gulping LED lights are now available to replace standard lights around the house.

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Early adopters, your LEDs have arrived. Find them on an endcap near the much larger CFL section at Home Depot and Menards. Selection includes bipin reflector lights for track lights, reflectors for recessed lights, flame-tip bulbs for chandeliers and exterior post lanterns and globes for vanities. Prices range up to (brace yourself) $70 per bulb.

Early adopters are used to paying a premium for new technology, but $70 for one bulb? Fortunately, many of the bulbs are in the $9 to $20 range. For Brian Treakle of Farmington, paying $20 for a bulb that might last 10 years or more isn't so much. "The cost is only $2 per year if the bulb lasts 10 years," he said.
The upfront cost, which is expected to fall like prices have on LCD TVs, is offset by lower energy costs. An LED bulb uses as little as 10 percent of the electricity to produce the same amount of light as a 60-watt incandescent bulb. A CFL uses less than 25 percent of the electricity of an incandescent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Until recently, consumers could purchase LEDs only as Christmas lights, solar-powered landscape lighting or flashlights, but now we have options. Stores such as Creative Lighting in St. Paul have LED applications for recessed, track and under-cabinet lighting. What you won't find is the garden-variety 60-watt bulb that makes up nearly half of all lightbulbs manufactured, said Rob Jackson, an LED specialist at Creative Lighting. That's still in development as manufacturers try to design a bulb without the drawbacks of CFLs, including flickering, mercury content, color rendition and limited dimmability.
If all of the 60-watt incandescents were replaced with LEDs, it would cut carbon emissions by 5.6 million metric tons annually and save enough power to light 17.4 million American households for a year, according to the Energy Department.