Leading LED lighting manufacturers have announced large price drops for the next-gen tech, meaning we could all be using far less energy in a few years.
Aeon Lighting and Samsung have both aggressively been dropping the price of LED lighting units, with the former announcing a 40 per cent drop in the price of a retrofit lightbulb to replace 'normal' incandescent bulbs.
According to Digitimes, the industry has seen a price drop from £15 to £9.30 per unit, with further price drops to occur.
Why switch?
That price is unlikely to convince too many of us to start pulling out our inefficient bulbs (which actually emit 90 to 98 per cent of energy as heat rather than light, whereas LED manages to emit around 20 per cent in light).
But it does mean larger business will be able to see significant energy and maintenance savings by replacing the bulbs, which can last over 20 years and are so efficient that many can be powered by solar energy alone - and that will lead to further price drops to entice consumers to save polar bears.
The shift towards aggressive price drops in the LED lighting arena is in part explained by the apparently disappointing uptake in LED TVs, according to LED packaging firm Edison Opto.
The first commercially available LED TV was popped out by Sony all the way back in 2004 as part of its super high-end Qualia range, but recent pushes with the technology by the likes of Philips, Samsung and LG have yet to see a significant demand from users.
