Roundtable to Shed Light on ‘Adoption of LED Lighting’

» AN50 on 02.02.10 @ 11:53 AM

This is very good news. LED’s are the future of lighting and their use should be adopted. There is one caveat though that policy makers need to address and fast, that is LED’s direct replacement of existing dimmed incandescent systems for home use. Current LED technology depends on switching power supplies to drop AC line voltage down to very low DC power for the diodes to operate. These power supplies are very small and build into the lamp base so that the consumer sees only a normal lamp. This means you cannot connect a lamp with an LED light to an existing incandescent dimmer, without damaging both dimmer and light and possibly starting a fire (this problem is also similar to the use of CFLs).  LED manufactures need to design front end circuitry that looks like an incandescent filament to a dimmer switch but outputs the proper DC level for the LEDs. Doing that and cheaply will ensure widespread acceptance by consumers looking to take advantage of this new technology without the added headache of rewiring their homes to retain dimmable lighting. There are LED dimmers and dimmable LED lamps but it is currently very expensive and requires extra wiring, a big no-no in the home improvement market. So come on all you EEs out there lets solve this problem and open up the market!

» @an50 on 02.03.10 @ 12:16 AM

The curly ques don’t dim with incandescent dimmers either so what’s the issue?

» AN50 on 02.03.10 @ 02:39 PM

That was my point. We keep coming up with very expensive solutions that don’t do what we want. The secret to market products is to give the customer what they want at a price they can afford.
I’ve replaced a lot of burned out dimmers from friends and family that used those stupid pig tail lamps (CFLs) as a direct replacement for incandescent lamps. That was after these same people spent a fortune on dimmers to save power and have infinite control over lighting levels.
Incidentally LEDs are more efficient tan the CFLs and way cheaper to make with less impact on the environment. My suggestion is don’t buy CFLs and wait for better LED products to come. In the mean time put a dimmer on your incandescent lamps and save power now while keeping yourself from going blind in the middle of the night when you through the lights on.