The next step down in lighting power consumption

At the risk of appearing to brag, our electrical consumption stats (measured in Kilowatt Hours) are down by over 35% since four plus years ago when we first decided to "Go Green;" that is because we have implemented most of those things posted on the www.green-metroplex.com website and our blogs. Our deciduous shade is keeping the sun off in the summer; almost all of our appliances are Energy Star rated; we unplug most electrical vampires when not in use; and all but a couple lights are fluorescent or compact fluorescent, as well. We're our own guinea pig when it comes to making these suggestions for how to save money by becoming greener over time (out of cash flow). Now, many of our compact fluorescent lighting bulbs are starting to approach their life span and we admit to lusting after LED lighting to replace them as the CFL's wear out. Our CFL's have paid us back in spades in their kilowatt power saving so we are looking to reduce our power needs even more by using the new LED lighting technology during our next replacement go-round and reduce our carbon footprint even more by not having to recycle mercury rich CFL's any longer, either

However...

While trying to shop them at our local Lowe's Home Improvement - I found that they stock not one LED lamp, period. At Wal-Mart there are stick on under-shelf LED's and we actually have a small number of those at home in the odd dark nook, because they are so handy to use. The spouse is not happy with the intense color of LED stick on lights and flashlights we own, but I've witnessed how demonstration full sized LED lighting replacements have tinted lenses to compensate for this nuisance factor.

At any rate, what I'm looking for is a tenfold drop in lighting power for the same lumen's count as our former incandescents used to emit and our compact florescent lamps which have fairly well matched their outputs for the past half decade. Remember, it's lumen's not watts that are the target prime benchmark, i.e., just sufficient brightness that one does not have to peer intently to easily see and not too bright such that one needs sunglasses to not squint whilst in their presence.

So far I've been stumped at finding retrofit LED Lamps in retail venues the local area - however, here's a link to my first cast into the Internet: http://www.earthled.com/ ... I'll keep you posted. wr
 

From the desktop of Warren Richardson   pro-active advocate
for conversion to energy alternatives and carbon footprint reduction.
Moderator of http://dfw-alt-e-caucus.blogspot.com/ and the

Webmaster of http://www.green-metroplex.com/ ... You are invited
to come see how cost effective, and sometimes profitable it can be to

                                         go green! save big