It’s Literally Wednesday: A Light Interlude

Dave | May 15, 2013

When Little Shop of Stories opened its current location five years ago they installed new light fixtures, mostly using standard spotlight bulbs. The best available alternative at the time was compact florescent lights (CFLs). As CFLs do not emit a full spectrum of light, they are not great in terms of reading .

In the meantime Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) have become more affordable. The quality of light is excellent. Compared to CFLs, LEDs last six times longer and use one-half the electricity for the same amount of lumens. (Compared to incandescents, LEDs last 40 times longer and use 1/10th the electricity.) Unlike CFLs, LEDs contain no mercury.

The downside is the cost. While considerably cheaper than even a year ago, the price of an LED bulb is about five times that of an incandescent.

Little Shop, with the help of Intown Ace Hardware (the Coolest Ace on the Planet), is switching over to LEDs this month. Given the lower electricity use, lower replacement cost, and lower air conditioning use (these LEDs do not emit a lot of heat), they hope to make the investment back within a year. They’ll keep you updated. If their experiment works, you may want to consider these for your home.

This Week

Jim Wallis, author of On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned about Serving the Common Good, Wednesday, May 15th at 7pm, Carter Presidential Library and Museum Theater, free.
Class Acts Tour and the Summer Reading Kickoff Party with Jarrett Krosoczka (author of Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked), Christopher Healy (The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle), and Soman Chainani (The School for Good and Evil), Thursday, May 16th at 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.
Saru Jayaraman, author of Behind the Kitchen Door, Thursday, May 16th at 7pm, Carter Presidential Library and Museum Theater, free.
Wendy Williams, author of Ask Wendy, Friday, May 17th at 7pm, Barnes & Noble Buckhead, free.
Larry Colton, author of Southern League: A True Story of Baseball, Civil Rights, and the Deep South’s Most Compelling Pennant Race, Monday, May 20th at 7pm, Carter Presidential Library and Museum Theater, free.
Gianna Angelopoulos, author of My Greek Drama: Life, Love and One Woman’s Olympic Effort to Bring Glory to Her Country, Tuesday, May 21st at 7pm, Carter Presidential Library and Museum Theater, free.
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One Response to “It’s Literally Wednesday: A Light Interlude”

  1. David Harris says:
    May 16, 2013 at 12:42 pm

    LEDs are great ! Three years ago, I replaced almost all of our incandescents with CFLs. However, they weren’t/aren’t dimmable and the light quality is not that great. Just last month, I went through the house and replaced almost all of the the CFLs with LEDs, hitting the most-frequently-used lights first.

    I expect we’ll see lower electricity bills this summer.

    I’ve noticed over the last year LED bulbs have gotten much cheaper. Last year, an LED was around $30 for 1 bulb. They can be found now for (well) under $10 each.