there continue to be a market for compact fluorescent light bulbs?

Presently, most plant growing is done with blue and red light, but a recently emerging field in horticulture is the discovery that the ideal spectral content, and the ideal timing of both brightness and colors through the day and the seasons, is different for various types of plants. So, whereas most plant growing now uses blue and deep red LEDs, the future ideal horticultural light sources might have any number of tunable wavelengths adjustable to the specific plants being grown. No legacy light source can provide the combination of high efficiency, tunable spectral content, and controllability of LEDs.

LEDs have many advantages over CFLs, but today’s higher cost of LEDs mean that for many consumers CFL is presently the best choice. CFLs are a phenomenally good investment for consumers right now based on electricity savings. The true cost of the 100W incandescent light bulb isn’t the US$ 0.50 price of the bulb. The true cost also includes the electricity used over the 1000-hour life of the bulb.LED lamps that provide as much light as a 100W incandescent bulb are becoming available over the next year or so. They will use about 20-25 watts and will last 25x longer than the incandescent, but they might cost US$ 50 or more. So, the payback time will be about five years versus the three to six months for the CFL.


With all the advantages of LEDs, will there continue to be a market for compact fluorescent light bulbs?Interestingly, gas-hybrid cars have about a five-year payback, too. Nonetheless, our intense focus among LED lamp manufacturers is to bring those prices down as quickly as possible. In five years, the cost of LED light bulbs should not be a concern for most consumers. They’ll get a nearly perfect light bulb at an affordable price, and each one will save them US$ 100 or more.