[quote=Hatfield]I’m pretty sure all the LEDs are made in China too. It’s a shame – I think LED lighting systems are probably going to be the wave of the future. Since the manufacturing process is so highly automated, labor cost is not much a factor. We should be building them here, and we should be investing in better lighting technology and keeping that technology here.

As for traffic lights, have you noticed that green LEDs seem to have a much higher mortality rate than the red ones? Notice how many green LED go lights are all funky with half the elements burned out, yet you never see that with red ones.[/quote]

Actually, the jury is out on whether LED’s are really more cost effective. It’s considerably more expensive to manufacture than normal bulbs, and although in the lab they are suppose to have a much longer life expectancy, in real environment tests, their light output degrades considerably faster, dependent on operating temperatures (hence why lab numbers look much better…controlled environment…STill long life, but not the numbers folks think).

Just like the compact fluorescents don’t nearly last as long as they are touted. Often touted as being able to last 3-4 years, CFL’s usually stop working much sooner since cheap circuits (made overseas) in them usually blow out much earlier than that…Not to mention that CFL aren’t exactly environmentally friendly. They aren’t exactly produced in an environmentally friendly way either…which is probably why companies need to have them made overseas where they are lax on environmental restrictions. But hey, as long as it’s not creating environmental issues here domestically..people thing they area good thing…. out of sight, out of mind…