Eco-Aware Consumers Convert to LED Bulbs

Every technology trend requires early adopters, the trendsetters who embrace new gadgets before they are ready for prime time.

In the race to find a better light bulb, there's Alan Falk.

He recently began installing lighting built from tiny chips, light-emitting diodes or LEDs. They use less power than traditional bulbs, don't have the harmful mercury found in fluorescent lights and can last for 20 years.

They are still too expensive to use in every light fixture in his house, but Mr. Falk has put two reading lamps in the bedroom, flood lamps over the deck and directional lamps on his Prius and cargo trailer, all LEDs.

Recent advances in LEDs' brightness, ambience and durability got Mr. Falk interested in buying and promoting the technology.

"I was a proselytizer for hybrid cars, and now I'm doing it for LEDs," said Mr. Falk, a retired engineer in Raleigh, N.C.

LED lights have been used in cell phones and car dashboards and for industrial settings for years. As costs decline and the technology improves, LEDs are catching on in a broader market.

The city of Raleigh began installing them in parking garages this year. North Carolina State University is testing them for campus housing, and retailers are selling flashlights and strings of Christmas LEDs.

The obvious next step is home and office lighting.

Part of that push will be driven by General Electric, Philips and other traditional light bulb makers, which are placing huge bets that LEDs' appeal will widen. Philips announced last month that it will buy LED lighting-fixture company Genlyte for $2.7 billion.

Based on technology advances, industry analysts think prices will fall enough to attract a much wider range of consumers next year. That should coincide with the appearance of general-purpose LED lights on store shelves. Right now, distributors are selling the products mostly to electricians and contractors.

Mr. Falk bought his on eBay.

But until prices fall, few consumers will pay a premium to switch their homes and offices to LEDs.

"It's still a big hurdle," said Harsh Kumar, an analyst with Morgan Keegan in Memphis who tracks the LED lighting market.

He estimated that LEDs cost four to six times more than alternatives.

LED makers see an uptick in interest among environmentally- conscious consumers, and that's rippling out to the home builders and electricians who serve them.

Originally published by Frank Norton Raleigh News & Observer.

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