They are. I've been in plenty of large aircraft hangars and a lot of them are lit by huge LED clusters. The things are the bomb!

I have started seeing good LED lights showing up in home improvement stores. As I type this, my desk is illuminated by a Utilitech LED light that was purchased from Lowe's. It has nine lenses, each with three warm white chips in it, totalling 27 LEDs (though on quick glance, it appears to be nine). It uses 2.3W, and casts a pretty pleasant colour (though it is very slightly greenish). It takes a 12VDC input.

Unfortunately, this exact model was discontinued last month, but I have noticed that they are bringing in newer model bar and puck lights that also look quite nice. Some take an external 12V supply, others do their power conversion on board.

Additionally, I noticed that Home Depot is carrying LED replacements for PAR bulbs . . . just the ticket if you have track or recessed lighting anywhere. They're a bit spendy, though, and can only run on 120VAC.

Right now Luxeon is the number one company. They have a line of LEDs that produce the full spectrum of light. they also have colored LEDs. And to save you the hassle of building a power supply they have what they call "Puck driver" power supplies. You can get in the door pretty cheaply. The pucks are less than $20 and some can drive as many as twelve 3 watt super power LEDs which coast about $7.00 each.

Given that your energy consumption will drop dramatically and the things are designed for years and years of operation that is not pricey or difficult.

I've seen what they call UFO LED modules that are meant for growing plants selling for almost a Grand each. They are trash compared to the Luxeon LEDs.

LEDs are still the subject of an incredible amount of misinformation given that there is no easy way to convert the light output data from an LED to that of an incandescent. Many makers fudge their numbers by how they focus the light output. They make a more tightly focused lens and say that their LEDs are super bright but they are not putting out any more light energy than a less expensive wide angle lens LED. Additionally the power consumption can vary from one identical LED to another unless the manufacturing is done really well. That makes powering them dicey because when you hook up several parallel runs of LEDs in series to get lots of light the odd ball can screw up the power consumption and forward voltage of any given string even leading to runaway power demand. . Forward voltage drop being the critical factor in resistor selection miliamp out put for the power supply as well ad peak voltage times SQRT2.


In the world of LEDs you stick with tip of the line manufacturers or you are playing games of chance.