Comments on: An LED breakthrough in Korea?

Work by a group of researchers could point the way to bright white, inexpensive LEDs down the road.

[Harlan879]

A detail in the article was missing that makes all the difference. It's NOT the case that these researchers generated an LED that emits two single-wavelength sources of light. If that had been the case, this wouldn't have been useful, as the color rendering (CRI) of the lamp would be very poor. It IS the case that they generated an LED that emits two *wide-band* colors that when overlaid give a relatively flat emissions spectrum. This should give relatively good CRI.

See Figure 4c of the paper. Pretty nice. No spikes like in fluorescent bulbs: http://www.bealecorner.org/best/measure/cf-spectrum/index.html

[chuchucuhi]

Phew, I've been waiting for "two noninteracting chromophores showing excited-state intramolecular proton transfer" for awhile now, thank goodness.

[toomath]

if this means that I can eventually replace all these CFLs with LEDs that will never die - and which use even less energy - I'm in. CFLS are an improvement over incandescants, but I'm finding a lot of defective ones - I've had to prematurely replace 4 in my house in the last year. That really cuts down on the environmental benefit, not to mention that I hate climbing around changing lightbulbs. If we get reliable LED lights that last ten years or more I'm in, even at double the cost of CFLs.

[Get_Bent]

"LEDs that will never die"? Fat chance of that.... I've seen plenty of stoplights and car taillights with dead LEDs. They should last longer than CFLs, but LEDs don't last forever.

[Kesteral]

LEDs do loose efficiency over time, so you will have to replace your LED lights every 3-4 years (or suffer increasingly dimmer lighting), but the cost savings should still be there.

[Joe Real]

I agree with you that the LED's life span is way over rated. I bought LED lights and they didn't last as long as my CFL. I put them on the same channel going to one switch so I know they were used at the same time. The LED's went out first. I can see defective LED traffic lights most of the time. They are over rated when it comes to life span.

Most CFL's life span are way over rated too. They stated a couple thousand hours of life span, but a few of them gave out after two weeks, then majority of them broke down after a year. It is not worth the time to pursue the warranty of these lights from the manufacturer. If the CFL broke down in a couple of weeks, I'll return it to the stores and get new one rather than deal with the manufacturer. I amazingly have a couple of CFL bulbs that is still working after 10 years of normal day to day use.

LED's would be nice if they can keep the cost down and it would be nice if the manufacturers can show us the realistic statistical average life span of the final product in a given context like normal household usage. So far, all that marvelous quotes of very long lifespan are THEORETICAL limits and not based on actual or realistic tests.

[avitous]

I've seen a wide disparity in quality between different CFL brands; the Feit Electric ones sold by Costco tend to fail within a year in my experience, but I have a few Philips and GE ones that are > 5 years old and still burning strong.

[SkepticalOptimist]

Just another data point in CFL endurance in the wild.

I have a CFL bulb that I have been using for 15 years. It's still going strong. Unbelievable!

[sartor1]

I applaud the South Korean Scientists work on this project! The world will benefit from their efforts. And North Korea's function is to play political world games...

[Yelonde]

As a south korea, it almost hurts to be automatically associated with north korea everytime the word, "korea" is brought up. Im not offended or anything, but I think we should forget about north korea. It is a lame backwards country, and they are choosing to suffer. In addition to that, it hurts south korea's reputation.

Eh, don't know where I was going with this. Anyways, great news. But it really doesn't affect me, lol.

[NotForNuthin]

I don't understand... What does this have to do with the iPhone?

[badmojo42]

HA! funny when I did a search on the page for "iphone" I found 17 links for it. too funny and sad...

[brianbot5000]

I've noticed that on CNET, the trend is to call things "blogs". By calling them "blogs", they are sort of immune from any journalistic integrity. Forget any of the "W's" and you're A-OK.

[Mike+1]

what does the iphone have to do with anything?

[mediocrates--2008]

The iPhone's primary function is to reaffirm the owner's belief that he/she is more sophisticated and enlightened that the rest of us poor scabs.

[scott2400]

mediocrates--2008:

exactly! <sarcasm>

looks like it's worked on you as well...

[21447krauter1]

The comments about inferior LEDs are reckless to some products in this industry. If you buy a Costco or other box store product look at the warranty, the compliance with UL Listing and the DOE standards LM 79 and LM 80. And most of all look at the origin of the product, China has flooded the market with a questionable products. There are alternatives that are truly superior to CFLs and incandescent but it takes a bit of research.

[sslPro]

you have a good grasp on the reality- costco garbage is like a yugo IT REALLY IS CRAP AND IS
DAMAGING MY INDUSTRY- I am a mfg rep for the premier SSL concern - It is crucial to have standards in
place such as caliper and Independant Testing Labs data to set standards. Yes garbage is out there and it's
buyer be informed - But there are examples of Quality Leds like Borealis or cree lighting .The quality
is based on the Led itself( Nichia/cree)and thermal mgmt , the driver ,the construct and architechure
And quality of optics, and if a mfg promises a 1 year or 5 year guarantee do they have a record of honoring it?
A 5 year iron clad warranty rarely invoked is the right scenario ( and these lights are made in Illinios(except chip)
People want & deserve quality- Reseach ,switch to quality and get an energy audit /improve our bldgs now!!
A CHAIN IS ONLY AS STRONG AS THE WEAKEST LINK