Funny this popped up today. We're doing a pilot project in a couple of dorms using Philips A19 LED bulbs. After a lot of research and testing these are the only LED bulbs that are a true 60w incandescent equivalent in both light output and color temp. They are more expensive than the Big Box store stuff, but for good reason. They work. Heavy suckers, too, due to the substantial heat sink for the driver, but that's the reason they actually meet their service life claims. Unlike most retail-ready units the Philips service life claims are based on actual performance of the bulb as an assembly, not just the LED chip life expectancy. It also helps that these bulbs are substantially more rugged as impact damage in dorm rooms is a common problem. The electricity savings? Maybe 5-10% at most. The savings will be the lower maintenance costs from reduced bulb replacement (both service-life and physical-damage failures).
CFLs are nice if they're in a constant-on location, not so much in a dorm room where lights get switched on and off many times a day. It's going to be even more of a problem as we migrate to occupancy sensors in the rooms. Figure a 50-70% reduction in service life for CFLs due to power-cycle degredation alone. The LEDs don't suffer that problem. Also figure in a reduction in impact damage failures for the relatively fragile CFLs vs the darned-near-bulletproof LED units. In some impromptu testing we actually destroyed the fixture before we were able to get the LED bulb to fail. They don't like heat, but the issue is pretty much moot as the heat intolerance (read: enclosed fixture) is roughly equivalent to the CFLs that are already in service.
All that to say that cheapo LEDs aren't worth buying. Spend a couple bucks on the good stuff and chances are you'll be taking the same bulb with you next time you move. Philips and Cree both make excellent units, as does Osram. Most of the product lines for all three companies can be found on Amazon now.
Brad
