[weeny]

another comparison to CFLs. the mercury arc in a CFL is struck between two electrodes, and every time the light is switched on the electrodes degrade. So if you are energy conscious and only have the light on a few hours at a time - you will burn through the CFL much faster. This isn't the case with LEDs - so if you have a light that you use 1 hour a day, you could definitely stretch it out to 30 years.

[wlesieutre]

CFL induction lamps might eventually resolve this, but at least for now they're priced out of the general market

[weeny]

Induction lamps are getting big - but most people want to get rid of the mercury vapor arc entirely and go for solid state, that's a big enough advantage that energy efficiency almost doesn't matter.

Unfortunately, Switch didn't figure out that the light is no longer "solid state" when they added liquid to it - and that a non-toxic liquid is probably worse in many situations than a toxic vapor.