It is a social issue. We are certainly living in a technological transition like 70 years ago, when we went from flame lighting to incandescent light bulbs.
However, this transition is taking place "halfway" as is the case in many mass technologies while current means allow total disruption.
Finally, as in every new market, inventors and industrialists of all stripes hope to "fork over" products, sometimes intelligent but at a premium ...
The last example I have seen, concerns the neon LED tube:
Nice find that this new LED tube compatible with the support for standard fluorescent tube! The white light produced is very close to daylight. No less than 120 LEDs per tube emit blue light, bleached using red and green fluorescent materials. The color rendering index (not to be confused with the color temperature) is IRC = 92, against 84 to 88 for a normal fluorescent tube (100 for daylight). It is the ability of the light source to restore the shades of the visible spectrum without changing them. The illumination is 370 lux at 1 m from the lamp, the equivalent of a 40 W fluorescent tube.
As you would expect, 120 LEDs dissipate heat. No wonder that the tube is surmounted by an aluminum dissipator. The LED support is narrow, the blind spot is small and the shadow cast significantly reduced.
The LED tube consumes 20 and 24 W and can directly replace an ordinary fluorescent tube without any modification either of the ballast, nor of the choke, nor of the support. Its lifespan is 40.000 h, about five times that of the standard fluorescent tube. The first applications envisaged by its Japanese manufacturer Toshin Electric are tunnels (also the metro), large professional premises and the lighting of public roads.
Will this new hit impose itself under its little name "Bikei"? And at the price of 230 €? It is expensive, but at this price, it is provided with a white or transparent polycarbonate protection.
source ELEKTOR
After a quick calculation, over its theoretical lifetime, this "marvel" would save around 450 kWh or around € 70 of electricity, to which should be added 5 conventional tubes not purchased for the same duration, or around € 30.
You will quickly have calculated that € 230 "investment" to save € 100 is like throwing € 130 out the window ...