Farmhouse Modern

Aeon Pro from Cyberlink

A growing number of LED light options are starting to become available offering to reduce household energy consumption while providing decent design and good light. So far they are mainly used for funky designs, task and undercounter lighting and outdoor path lighting, but this is starting to change.

LED lights use far less electricity and the average life of an LED bulb is over 50,000 hours. You can now buy LED bulbs that fit standard light sockets and produce a wide range of lighting from soft to spot (even changing color). I plan to get a few of these, try them out and let you know if they are ready for prime time.

Vivid LED $15 and up
Energy Bucket by Stefano Merlo
Energy Balloon by Emma Caselton

The following background on LED lights comes from Toolbase.com.

A Light Emitting Diode (LED) is a semiconductor device which converts electricity into light. LED lighting has been around since the 1960s, but is just now beginning to appear in the residential market for space lighting. At first white LEDs were only possible by “rainbow” groups of three LEDs — red, green, and blue — by controlling the current to each to yield an overall white light. This changed in 1993 when Nichia created a blue indium gallium chip with a phosphor coating that is used to create the wave shift necessary to emit white light from a single diode. This process is much less expensive for the amount of light generated.Each diode is about 1/4 inch in diameter and uses about ten milliamps to operate at about a tenth of a watt. LEDs are small in size, but can be grouped together for higher intensity applications. LED fixtures require a driver which is analogous to the ballast in fluorescent fixtures. The fixtures run on standard 120 volt alternating current (AC), with a modest (about 15 to 20 percent) power loss.