Are you ready to make the switch to LED lightbulbs?

LEDs had two primary disadvantages as a replacement bulb option for homes: they were too expensive and didn't emit a natural-feeling color of light. Now, companies like Lighting Science Group (LSG) seemed to have solved these problems and they plan to introduce a new set of LED light bulbs. Some of these bulbs are already available at their store here with prices ranging from $25 to $110 per bulb. The bulbs will fit into a regular socket without the need for special adapters. Though LSG is not the first one to make this LED bulb available, they are first ones to introduce them commercially. Zach Gibler, chief business development officer said the bulbs perform well on warmth and on a color rendering index (blue looks blue, yellow looks yellow etc). They also have a long life cycle and consume 80 per cent less energy than incandescent bulbs. The bulbs may seem expensive with prices ranging from $25 to $110 per unit, but compared to cost of buying regular incandescent bulbs over 30 years, it seems to make sense. The Edison bulb lasts for 750 to 3,000 hours, whereas an LED bulb lasts about 50,000 hours (nearly 10 to 30 years). LSG says the cost savings is almost $740 over a lifetime because of low-energy consumption, so the initial price is not a big hurdle. Gibler expects this will be “the year of LED” and more LED bulbs will be pushed to market. Lawmakers are considering banning the incandescent bulbs by 2012 in the U.S., so LEDs will become popular by that time. Initially LSG has made these light bulbs available through their online store, but the company will also distribute them through retail and wholesale centers. Vrinda Bhandarkar, a research analyst at Mountain View, Calif.-based Strategies Unlimited, said she is impressed with this “bulky looking lamp” for their performance. But she said the prices have to come down before consumers and businesses start buying them en masse. With LSG’s prices, a kitchen with four bulbs would require an LED replacement cost about $440, which is very high. She told Crave.net:

They will be used for retail display, hotel lobbies, for paintings that hang up high, and places where you need a high ladder to change lamps.

However, Gibler believes the price for LED lights will come down when the prices of chips gets cheaper. He expects the price to be half that of today's cost in another two years. LEDs are also safe to use, as they don’t have mercury in their bulbs like the CFL bulbs.