Honest opinions about how to buy Appliances and Lighting.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Cree and LED

The cover of Investors Business Daily features Cree, a prime manufacturer of LED and a subject of frequent postings on the Yale Blog. Evidently, they blew away their earnings yesterday, far over estimates.

For commercial and industrial users, LED is almost a requirement, because the payback is almost immediate. LEDs are 90 percent efficient, emit almost zero heat and have a lamp life of 15-20 years.

So, a store planner can reduce the electrical, the HVAC (less heat to remove) and way less maintenance for bulb replacement, which is handy given these are three of the largest store expenses.

But the article also said they are looking at the residential market, which is curious...as they are already there.








Basic premise to homeowners is similar to commercial, LED will save energy, AC and heat and will require zero maintenance...Although the initial costs are higher, the payback in just energy is a little over three years.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Steve,
    Thanks for this post and for explaining more about LED lighting to your readers. You're right that our LED lights are already being used in homes (possibly yours based on the link you provided to your electric bill). Particularly, our LR6 recessed downlight. However, we are also doing more to bring LED lighting home. Not sure if you saw this release yesterday or if you're at the International Builders' Show this week in Vegas:

    http://www.cree.com/press/press_detail.asp?i=1263995442783

    But we're demonstrating a new 6 inch LED downlight designed for the residential market at the show.

    We're also giving away some of our LR6 LED Downlights on our website in a monthly photo contest. http://CreeLEDRevolution.com

    Thanks again for this post!

    ReplyDelete