I, for one, would LOVE to know more facts about that!!!
SWMBO and I made the Leap of Faith into CFLs a few years before they became useful as Light Sources. (I sense an echo here: wildly exaggerated claims, tint-color lottery, variable QC, no useful engineering info, etc. — all the same, just concerning CFLs (and tubular FLs “back in the day”) as I hear today over every new LED manufacturer to come along…) She won’t turn lights OFF, I usually have to be reminded to turn them ON. We put CFLs in her “always ON” sockets, and incans where we need occasional light, special light (120W for one), or where the huge pigtails don’t fit. But I digress…
We don’t have government subsidies around here to skew the cost bases & thereby confuse people, although the power co-op did give away dim brown CFLs (“60W-equivalent”) to anyone who wanted any. Our “best” home-LED bulbs run closer to $40USD than $4. And the “best” CFLs don’t even hit $4 if you don’t care what color or quantity of light they put out. That makes it RARE to find anyone actually USING the LEDs…
It’s surprising how many “ordinary” people DO care — a LOT — about the color and quantity (and quality, if any of you remember “flicker” of FL tubes) of light their bulbs emit.
(Full Disclosure: the color-reference-standard a lot of posters here seem to prefer is what I call “60W White” because it seems to my eyes to match the color emitted by a standard 60W incandescent bulb. These bulbs cost us poor folk Zero Dollars and Forty-Two Cents ($0.41667). Each. My preference is “100W White”, just so you’ll know. Top-shelf 3-Mode (dimmable!) ones of these cost a whole $1.24! Even with magick thinking, it takes a LONG time to balance that equation!!!)
I have a friend (believe it or not) who popped on a cheap LED for his workshop. He didn’t keep the package, and doesn’t care about details, so don’t ask. All I can say is, it was the cheapest one Lowe’s had last summer. As a near-to-hand “task light” or as a ‘courtesy light’ so visitors don’t crash into stuff, it’s fine, but here’s what I want you to try with one (1) of yours: Walk across the room and try to read the label on a laptop HDD, or the instructions for microwaving a meal… Now, (sorry, but someone had to say it) leave that one bulb as it sits and walk to the OTHER side of the room and repeat the test… IFF your LEDs make enough Light to do that job, I’m VERY interested, nevermind the cost. (I’ve seen your beamshots… You of all people know what I mean by “throw”.)
I’m just trying to defend the idea that QUALITY and QUANTITY of the ACTUAL LIGHT is at least as important to some of us as the Price Tag (yes, I mean Lifecycle Cost) of the bulb used.
And I do know that CFLs and LEDs are MONOchromatic, where the light I seem to need most is OMNIchromatic Meaning: why only 5000 (whatever)k? What about 5000k AND 3700k AND 14000k (and IR and a little bit of UV) all together like humans are used to seeing??? ALL wavelengths make the best “white” light… So the notion of “cost of light quality” over “price of green hype” will likely rub quite a few people the wrong way. I hope so… I have yet to meet anyone who will commit the effort to think thoroughly about something they feel comfortable believing. Full disclosure: as much as I love the LEDs for flashlights, I can’t see any way they could ever be made AS USEFUL, overall, as plain old point-source burning wires. When they make a small, spherical, BRIGHT (not “…for an LED”) multi-chromatic LED, I will be at the head of the line!!!