The State of Solid State (Lighting)
...is a mix of "That's pretty cool" and "Why can't they get it right?"
I recently replaced the last regular incandescent lights in/on the house with LED bulbs. 60W equivalent, on sale for 99 cents each. These are on the front porch and don't see a lot of use, but at 99 cents why not be done and then likely never change those bulbs again? And the yellowish 3000K color temperature doesn't much matter there. Meanwhile back of the garage is an enclosed area that had a CFL but on older LED has replaced that. It's more so that in the Winter, the light comes on rather than glows dimly for a while, which annoys me. Again, the color temperature (the truly atrocious yellow 2700K) isn't very important there. Pretty cool. Well, not too bad.
A few weeks back the office lights were changed. They had been nice 4000K bulbs, but alas they were truly junk electronics (the cheapest Chinese stuff there was, it seems. Not inexpensive, cheap.) and so were replaced by a set of Sylvania bulbs. These are slightly more yellow, but at a tolerable near-white 3500K. And these are 75W equivalent and have fuller emission pattern - the room is brighter and not just in spots, but all over, as it should be. Pretty cool.
The old Wal-mart small LED bulbs in the downstairs bathroom have been swapped out for a couple LED filament-alike tubular bulbs (the fixture was made for a pair of tubulars). The room is yellow anyway, so the color isn't critical, but is brighter and the bulbs look right. And the bulb at the top of the stair well is a four-level thing that can be switch-controlled to select from 60W equivalent down to nightlight (that uses a whopping 0.3 Watts). Pretty cool.
And then there's the vanity in the upstairs bathroom which use six bulbs. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, they will be the old small 70 lumen Wal-mart bulbs rather than big G25 globes that really would look better there. Sure, I can get G25 globes - if I want more than 25W equivalent (SIX bulbs - I neither need nor want anything brighter) or would settle for the atrocious 2700K (or less, ouch). 4000K would be ideal. 3500K would be alright. I might even settle for 3000K if the brand was good and the price was right. Why can't they get it right?
The only incandescent lamps left in the house are appliance and indicator bulbs. There are also a few fluorescent tubes (two linear, one circline) still in service.