Look out for LED Light Bulbs and Lighting

We're talking about Light-Emitting Diodes, which are likely to replace CFL lights someday as the leading products in energy-efficient lighting. LEDs are tiny compared to incandescent and fluorescent lights, because no filament is required in the bulb. Instead, current passes through a minute semiconductor, exciting electrons to produce light.

In case you're wondering what at LED light looks like, you've already seen plenty of them -on digital clocks, watches, calculators, and appliance control panels. As for LED light bulbs for all your fixtures, these aren't commonly available yet as an affordable alternative to CFLs. But that's certain to change as technology catches up with the demand for more efficient products.

LED lights are extremely efficient, long
lasting, and contain no mercury, but
currently are an expensive alternative.

Here are the basic advantages that LED lights offer over incandescents and CFLs:

• Extremely efficient. An LED light can be 20-50 times more efficient than an incandescent light (at least 5 times more efficient than a CFL).
• Long lasting. An LED light can last 20 years.
• No mercury. An LED light can be recycled or discarded without special handling.
• Compact and creatively packaged. Because each Light Emitting Diode is so tiny, LED lights can be manufactured in virtually any configuration.

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