Lowe's jumps on the LED bulb bandwagon

I've already mentioned Home Depot's adoption of the LED light bulb. Now comes word that Home Depot wanna-be Lowe's is doing the same. Cnet's Green Tech reports that the number two home improvement giant will be carrying a new Osram Sylvania 60-watt LED bulb. That's 60-watt equivalent, of course. The whole point is that the light only draws 12 watts of energy to produce the same illumination as a traditional incandescent bulb.

You know that LED products have arrived ...

... when spammers put adverts for LED lanterns in your in-box!

LED lantern e-mail spam. (click to enlarge)

More media attention for new LED bulbs

Now that LED bulbs are coming on the market at something like reasonable prices, as I posted last month, everyone is jumping on the trend. A New York Times article, To Go Where Compact Fluorescents Cannot, reports that both general purpose and specialty bulbs are coming to Home Depot.

But by the end of this month, the 2,200 Home Depot stores around the United States will stock seven types, including two substitutes for the classic incandescent bulb.

And on cnet’s Green Tech blog, Martin LaMonica is ready to try something new. “I more or less ditched incandescent bulbs for more-efficient compact fluorescents in my house years ago,” he writes. “But at this point, I'm awfully close to ditching CFLs for the latest in lighting technology: LEDs.” LaMonica goes on to say that the biggest problem in LEDs — they heretofore only offered illumination in one direction — has been just about solved:

In the past year, though, lighting manufacturers have introduced LED bulbs in a shape Edison would recognize that put out a decent amount of good-quality light. They still don't give off light from all sides as incumbent technologies do, but this latest generation of LEDs does a better job dispersing light, which means that you could use one (or a few) for overhead lighting.

With Home Depot stocking these bulbs now, soon they’ll be in stores everywhere.

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Sept. 30 Update: On ZD Net, a columnist notes that these new LED bulbs are now available in Home Depot at an under $20 retail price.

LEDs are the new CFLs

Good news for people who hate CFLs, like my wife (too dim, she says). New low(er) cost LED bilbs are finally making their way onto the market. Check out this article from Reuters and Sustainable Business: Home Depot to Sell LED Bulbs for Surprisingly Cheap. According to the article, two years ago, a 60W LED-based bulb cost $90. In April, a GE model was announced in the $40 to $50 range. Now Home Depot is selling at a $19.97 price point.