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LED Web Shopping:

The award-winning LR6 recessed downlighting for the kitchen and elsewhere. Price: $99 (below, "warm" option). For details click here.

EarthLED's Evolux bulb. One of the brightest LED bulbs available and the rare LED bulb that may be right for you as a reading light in a beside lamp. Price: $80. For details click here. (Company claims it's the equal of a 100-watt incandescent, but you may see it differently - even on its own web site. Also, some buyers draw attention to a hum coming from the fan inside the bulb).

LED desk lamp (below). Price: $25. For details click here.

The Department of Energy challenged the lighting industry with the offer of its $10 million L Prize to develop not just a better light bulb, but the best light bulb anyone could buy.

In September, Philips submitted its entry (right photo: left side, right hand) and as 2010 rolls along no other company or any innovator has tried to meet the DOE challenge.

The Philips entry is impressive. Its LED bulb is so much like a 60-watt incandescent bulb except that it's vastly more efficient. Will Philips win unopposed and what's an LED light anyway? Read on.

The Light of the Future Now

Light emitting diodes fixtures, by far the most efficient, longest-lasting lighting, are finding a place in the home.

Light emitting diodes could be the poster child for zero energy. You save 80% to 90% of the lighting portion of your energy bills simply by unscrewing incandescent bulbs and screwing in LEDs.

Just like that you shoot past the zero energy goal of reducing your utilities bill by 70% at a center of significant energy waste in your home. You also get lights that last as much as 50 times as long as your traditional bulb and just maybe a light you like better.

Still, LEDs are a work in progress. As with most innovations their initial cost is high and that alone makes them a tough sell. In their brief life, these glowing semiconductors also have not given us what we're used to seeing. Their color and their glow has fallen short of the standard set by the 60 and 100 watt incandescent bulbs that light our homes. But that's changing. LEDs have entered the home and can compete with incandescents thanks to advances made only in the past year.

The competition isn't on in every room. Just one. The kitchen. What makes this room so special? In a word: downlighting. The light from LEDs is directional and since kitchen lighting tends to point in one direction - yes, down - the kitchen is a room that's well suited to the best of what LEDs have to offer. In fixtures recessed in the ceiling and suspended from it, LEDs can produce the kind of light we see all the time from incandescents. Maybe better.

The incandescent isn't perfect. It's just the artificial light that we know. It's not natural light. For example, incandescent lighting doesn't render the true color of blue. In fact, the latest LEDs may even top the incandescent in providing true color. That is, when you're preparing dinner under LED lighting you may see the red in tomato, the green in cucumber and the yellow in corn as it really is.

Here's a little test to illustrate how the two light sources stack up against each other. Below are four photos of kitchens. Two have LED lighting, while two have incandescent. Try to tell the difference between the LEDs and the incandescents. The answers are below the photos.

1/2

*

*

*

*

*

*

3/4

*

*

*

*

*

*

Well? Pretty close? The answer: upper left (1) and bottom right (4) have incandescent fixtures, while upper right (2) and bottom left (3) have the light emitting diode fixtures.

The LED are the same in both photos and represent a breakthrough in lighting. Cree's LR6, as it is known, has been picking up awards for a year now, from the 2007 Tomorrow Grand Prize for Solid State Lighting to the Silver International Design Excellence Award in the EcoDesign category in July.

Nice things to be surrounded by since the product just came on the market in April. You can see how good they are - if you happen to be in Columbus, Ohio. Kitchen 2 is in the governor's residence.

By the Numbers

While the best judge of lighting is your own eyes, the LR6 nearly duplicates incandescents in two measurements of color. Both have the same warm color temperature of 2,700 degrees Kelvin and the LCD color rendering index is at 92% compared to 100% for incandescents.

In efficiency there is no comparison. A 12 watt LR6 (right) outshines - where it is cast - a comparable 65 watt incandescent. That wattage difference represents a utilties savings of 82% and the savings are billed as good over 50,000 hours or more than a quarter century of keeping the kitchen lights on from sundown to bedtime.

It's a little early in the LEDs era to attest to the truth in the 50,000 hour claim. (They may last double that figure, but the industry appears to be sticking with the low end of the range). White LEDs - they come in every color - only go back a little over a decade and improvements have come incrementally.

Low wattage bulbs - below 10 - were most of the market during that time and couldn't possibly measure up to most home uses, so it's literally impossible to say if the longevity claim will hold up should more powerful LEDs like the LR6 start to sell in big numbers.

Of course, it always comes down to cost in the beginning and the end. LEDs are a long way from competing on the upfront price of lighting up a room. (Check LR6 web prices in the first column). The LR6 will set you back many more times what your 65 watt incandescent will cost you. Still, if you can get past that hurdle as you will have to for years to come you'll get the benefit of big energy and carbon emissions savings, long-life, literally cooler light and just maybe better light.

After the Kitchen, Then What?

LEDs will be some time getting to the point where they'll light up the whole house. The LEDs replacing 60 and 100 watt incandescents will have to radiate their light more and Americans will have to adjust to their light - to say nothing of the price. Still, there are a number of incandescent replacement jobs they can be used for around the home right now.

They serve well as lights over the entrances to the house and garage, as desk lamps, as bedside reading lamps and picture lights. These are obviously not major assignments that will produce big energy savings, but the bulbs used for these tasks don't cost as much as the LR6 either.

*****

The Most Energy Efficient Appliances

Making every cut in the utilities bill count will improve your chances of reaching zero energy.

When you think of all the gray matter going into trying to reduce energy consumption in choosing insulation, windows, heating and cooling equipment and lighting, you have to wonder how much left there is for anything else. Fortunately, not a whole lot is needed.

Appliances are the last category and in many zero energy circles there is something of a let-them-be attitude. There are a bunch of them and individually there isn't a whole lot to be gained in spending too much time trying to squeeze energy savings out of them when buying one for your home.

Yet, what energy can be saved is very welcomed in the quest for zero energy and can be done fairly easily so it becomes worth the effort. Certainly, that's the case for the refrigerator and as it's the biggest energy user among appliances - sucking up about 6% to 8% of your total energy bill - it'll be covered first. The other major appliances - clothes washer, clothes dryer, dishwasher and oven - each consume a good deal less and will be covered at a later date.

REFRIGERATORS

Replace an average refrigerator after a typical 20-year life with a new version of the old one and you'll cut the cost of running it in half. Shop around for a model that is more efficient and you'll save significantly more.

It's simple enough to do too. Just shop from the Energy Star list. While less than 3% of all refrigerator models are worth a look, there are some 2,500 models in all and that still leaves more than 50 to choose from - keeping a few tips in mind:

• Size matters. The bigger the refrigerator the more energy it uses, so get the smallest model that fits your needs. What is that? Any where you look you'll find that "standard" or "family of four" amounts to 16 to 22 cubic feet of refrigerator and freezer space. Two or three people: 14 to 16. In any case, your choices of Energy Star models becomes extremely limited below that range.
• Freezer location counts too. The order of efficiency is top, bottom and side. A refrigerator/freezer with the freezer at the bottom uses 17% more energy than one with the freezer on top, while side-by-side configurations use 30% percent more that the toppers according to the Department of Energy's Energy Star program.
• Extras hurt efficiency. Having extra cold tap water or ice cubes coming through the door will almost always cost you. This may get into intrusive behavior modification, but is it worth having a refrigerator that is, according to the National Association of Home Builders, 14% to 20% less efficient just to get ice without having to open the door?

All of the Energy Star qualifiers that meet the 3 conditions above are at least 20% - up from 15% in April - better than Federal standards, which have improved dramatically over the last several decades.

Kenmore dominates a parade of brand names of Energy Star models, but the leader is a refrigerator from a little California company. Sun Frost's RF-16 is easily the most efficient refrigerator on the planet with at least 14 cubic feet of space.

It has a reputation for keeping food fresh longer. It is also extremely expensive. Ordered straight from the company the price is $2,955 (DC) or $2,807 (AC) plus a crating fee of $60. You can get it for a few bucks less from some retailers. See upper right column for one example.

You can spend a lot less for other 14 to 16 cubic foot top freezers (with no ice makers on the door). Kenmore and Hotpoint have 2 models and Frigidaire, GE, Maytag and Whirlpool have one one each.

In the 16 to 18 cubic foot range Kenmore has 30 followed by 8 Frigidaires, 7 GEs, 3 Whirlpools, 2 Beaumarks, and 1 Crosley, Electrolux and Maytag each. Get an idea on price in the third column.

GE Energy Star refrigerator/top freezer 15.5 cubic feet (363 kwh/yr) and among the lowest priced for its size and efficiency at $466. For details click here.

Sun Frost Energy Star refrigerator/top freezer 14.3 cubic feet (254 kwh/yr) for buyers who want the most efficient refrigerator available: $2,777.50. For details click here.

Frigidaire Energy Star refrigerator/top freezer 18.2 cubic feet (383 kwh/yr) and among the lowest priced for its size and efficiency at $515 (i.e. down $24 over the last few months). For details click here.