More and more people are turning their eyes towards LEDs as a way to conserve energy. But will you really maximize efficiency by buying this still emerging, costly lighting now? Or should you wait, or to use your money now other energy-saving lighting, and use the savings that generates to buy LED lights down the road?

You have most likely seen LEDs already: camping headlamps, LED Christmas lights, wind-up flashlights. How about LED house lights? If LEDs are so efficient, why aren't manufacturers scrambling to sell LED lights for the home, and why isn't the public scrambling to purchase them?

I won't try to propose LEDs as a solution to high electricity bills or as the most environmentally beneficial lighting solution around. Truth be told, I think they have a stretch to go yet, in terms of function, longevity, and cost. There are some LED products you should consider now, such as LED Christmas lights. And you might like experimenting with a few LED lights, if you're the energy-saving type. But you are going to save more money by keeping with your existing lighting, and switching to fluorescent lighting in the next year or so. Compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs, have a payback so short that they'll pay for themselves before LEDs have matured enough to render CFLs obsolete.

LED house lights are more efficient than incandescent or fluorescent lighting. But the light of LEDs is very direct. An incandescent bulb casts its light over a wide area fairly evenly, while LEDs are very focused, so that the area they directly illuminate is quite bright, but the further from the direct beam, the less light there is. For LED Christmas lights, that isn't an issue; you just want some shining points of light, which LEDs do very efficiently. But an incandescent or CFL will do a much better job of brightening up your dining room than an LED light in the same socket. The light will be more evenly and broadly distributed, and with a warmer feel.

When you see LED packaging claims of LED light output, you should be doubtful. A number in Lumens, which measures brightness, is misleading for LEDs, because of their direct beam. Lumens levels are measured using a sensor placed right underneath the light source. A household LED light bulb at 2 watts might have the same lumens rating as a 50 watt halogen lamp, or as a 15 watt CFL, but the LED bulb only emits a focused beam directly beneath it to that measured lumens level, while the incandescent bulb and compact fluorescent will shine over a much wider area, and still provide that same lumens rating for the area immediately beneath the bulb. This could be the source of a recurring negative comment among LED owners, such as: "They claim this 2-watt LED light has the same light output as a 50-watt incandescent but it seems more like a 30-watt incandescent bulb to me."

As for halogen lights, they are only as efficient as incandescent bulbs, so the same energy efficiency considerations apply here. But since halogen lights are generally much more direct than incandescent lights, LED lights that are designed to replace halogen lights are both much more efficient than the halogens they replace, and up to the task of direct light that halogen bulbs are known for. You can find LED replacement bulbs for the most common halogen bulbs such as GU10 and MR13, and this may be a good place to start the switchover.

LED house light manufacturers work around the issue of the narrow beam of a light emitting diode, by building household LED bulbs that are a collection of individual LEDs, with each diode directed at a distinct angle, so that a wider area is highly illuminated. This increases the angle of full light provided by an LED bulb. However very few such bulbs provide the breadth of area coverage of traditional incandescent bulbs or compact fluorescent lights and at the same time are bright enough.

Where LED lights outshine existing bulbs is as replacements for lighting that is (or should be) highly area specific. For example, a light in a narrow corridor, where the chief purpose of the light is to show people their way from one room to another, would be a good application for LEDs.

Task lighting is another example of an application where LEDs are suitable. Why light up your whole work room if all you need to see is the tools on the work bench right before your eyes? A couple of LED bulbs hanging above the work bench will do the job. But this won't be cost-effective unless you spend hours every day in the workroom.

LED house lights are, according to their makers, very durable, when compared to incandescent bulbs and CFLs. LED life expectancy ranges from 35,000 to 200,000 hours, compared to 1,000 hours for a good incandescent light, and 8,000 hours for a CFL. But I have seen many consumer ratings of LED lights that suggest some bulbs die within a few weeks of being switched on. So there are quality control issues still to be resolved - again, this is a good reason for holding off a year or two before a major conversion to LEDs.

Whether LEDs will really live up to their long lasting billing remains to be seen - even the 35,000 hour ones would need to be left on 24x7 for 4 years before they come close to reaching their advertised range. And LED lights do dim with age - so while a bulb might be rated for 35,000 hours, it won't emit its starting light level for the full 35,000 hours - the closer to the end of its expected life, the less light it will emit. LED lights do slowly fade in light intensity and therefore in efficiency, although they will remain more efficient than either CFLs or incandescent bulbs throughout their life.

The "color temperature" of a light source, measured in 'degrees Kelvin', determines human visual response to its light. Most people are comfortable with the yellowish glow of incandescents at around 2800 Kelvin (2800K), even though fluorescent lighting is closer to the natural daylight temperature of 6000K. Any LED light with a temperature of 6000K or higher will tend towards bluish, and any LED bulb with a color temperature above 4000K will appear whiter than an incandescent.

Although people are typically concerned about how fluorescent or LED lights can make their rooms look blinding white instead of the soft yellow glow provided by incandescent lights, you should remember that a little sacrifice in color temperature will put a big dent in your electricity bill. Be a leader, not a follower - start converting your lights to true daylight colors, whether with CFL lights or LED lights. You will make it easier for your friends and neighbors to make the change, when they see they won't be the first people with a slightly bluer light tinge in their homes.

Whether you switch some of your lights to LED lights now, or wait for the technology and reliability to get better, you can count on the fact that LEDs will become more important in lighting our houses in the future. I personally think it makes sense to wait, except in certain special use lighting situations where the direct, high-color-temperature light of LEDs is what you need, and where money is no object. If your objective is to save money - or to cut your energy use for environmental reasons - the same amount of money spent on fluorescent lights, or most other energy efficiency upgrades, will reduce your energy costs and CO2 emissions more than buying today's LED lights.