Why are LED light bulbs so expensive

[kidneystone 23]

Why are LED light bulbs so expensive. I would have thought they were a lot cheaper to produce than CFL's. Are the manufacturers ripping us off?

[Glamrocker 10]

Why are LED light bulbs so expensive. I would have thought they were a lot cheaper to produce than CFL's. Are the manufacturers ripping us off?

More than likely..and whats new ?

[andrejuan 10]

They are the new thing at the moment so we pay through the nose.

The technology has been around a while, and the diodes are very cheap to make, adapting them for use as a replacement in the home complicates it a bit but they will come down in price.

[Resident 1,193]

As Andrejuan said. It's new technology and most firms are trying to recoop money spent in R&D.

 

LEDs typically can only handle upto 12v and you're sticking them in a 240v supply which means the need for a transformer. Transformers are bulky things that produce a lot of heat and I'll bet most of the R&D has gone into making them smaller and produce as little heat as possible. Not an easy or cheap task.

 

So yes, currently they're expensive and priced way over the cost of the materials being used, but they need to get the 'lost' money back which was spent in R&D.

[Nekatom 10]

Yesss electrical have some good ones around the £6 mark, sraight opposite Hillsborough

[muddycoffee 10]

, sraight opposite Hillsborough

 

Straight opposite Hillsborough what ?

[speleo1 10]

Straight opposite Hillsborough what ? football ground

[RootsBooster 24]

Why are LED light bulbs so expensive. I would have thought they were a lot cheaper to produce than CFL's. Are the manufacturers ripping us off?

 

Because the diodes are made form kittens' teeth

[Clown Shoes 10]

Why are LED light bulbs so expensive. I would have thought they were a lot cheaper to produce than CFL's. Are the manufacturers ripping us off?

 

They last for ever!

[Bonjon 10]

They last for ever!

 

They dont last forever, they should last a lot longer than CFL's (unless you buy cheap Chinese crap).

 

As for buying them, Asda has an offer for 3 for £15 at the moment, including various makes.

[spilldig 189]

Why are LED light bulbs so expensive. I would have thought they were a lot cheaper to produce than CFL's. Are the manufacturers ripping us off?

 

Probably a fair bit is due to greed.

[Alcoblog 10]

Why are LED light bulbs so expensive. I would have thought they were a lot cheaper to produce than CFL's. Are the manufacturers ripping us off?

 

FROM ALCOPEDIA ...

 

LED's

 

The LED is in actual fact a fossilised fish eye of a fish called a Coelacanth which lived around 400 million years ago in the Plasticine era ... this fish being the very earliest form of semiconductor (citation required).

 

Scientific research has since proved that the Coelacanth dazzled its prey (other fossils and the like ... maybe pebbles?) to death with its electroluminescent eyes which converted electrons into energy, in the form of protons (another citation required).

 

In 1907, electroluminescence was first re-invented by H. W. Round at the famous British pasta and cheese manufacturers Marconi with the only two fossilised fish eyes left in existence.

 

Not a fat lot happened after that until 1938 when a live Coelacanth was discovered swimming about in the sea off the east coast of South America (citation again please).

Once again, by applying a small voltage, the fish eyes were turned into bright lights of the most electroluminescent kind ... the hunt began for more fish!

Unfortunately, the fish proved very difficult to find due to living at tremendous depth in the ocean ... routinely self-exploding as they were hauled to the surface due to decompression sickness (also known as 'the bends' or 'nitrogen narcosis').

Local fishermen re-christened the Coelacanth 'Lives Extremely Deeply' ... later acronymised to LED.

 

These LED lights, by their very nature, proved very expensive to produce due to the scarcity of eyes ... until a cheaper way to harvest them was invented ... and from a very surprising source!

 

It's well known that in his heyday, Roger Daltrey of 'The Who', had very expensive LED implants in his eyes to give them the electric blue look and has been a keen follower of all things Coelacath ever since, as well as being an astute businessman. By sheer coincidence he owns a deep water salmon fishery in East Sussex called 'Lakedown Fishery'

 

It was little surprise then when in 1962, he teamed up with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull (another salmon farm owner and inventor of the aqualung) to create the first ever farmed deep water LED farm fishery just outside of Tonbridge Wells (Kent ... citation required).

 

The LED farm, now called 'Jethro Who?' is the worlds only LED producer in existence ... producing lights for things as diverse Christmas tree lights to bicycle lamps and more!

 

Of course, having the monopoly on LED's means that they can charge whatever they like for them. Being greedy so*s they hold the world to ransom.

 

That's why LED's are so expensive!