LED lighting explored in BOING BOING piece by Maggie Koerth-Baker

The website, Boing Boing has a great article "LEDs: Throwing Some Light on the Hype" by Maggie Koerth-Baker who says she has spent quite a bit of time covering the LED lighting business for a trade publication.  She takes a sober and brief look at the state of LED lighting today.

She writes:

The LED industry is kind of in this awkward teenage phase right now, where it's doing the business equivalent of tagging public buildings and sneaking cigarettes out behind the barn. There's a lot of misrepresentation and a lot of flat-out lies, and just because a box says something that doesn't mean you can believe it (more so than boxes of other things).

What she says can apply to a lot of emerging green and natural technology.  You really do have to be careful when listening to a salesperson or reading a product claim.  Some claims are really conditional though they don't sound like it.  Some claims are based on the limited experience or knowledge of the person making the claim. 

Many times a salesman or inventor, who is justifiably proud of his product, has been shocked at our San Antonio Sustainable Living meetings to be asked to address the specific weaknesses and drawbacks of his device or building system.  That kind of tough informed questioning just doesn't happen at the home show. 

It pays to be informed, to investigate claims and to draw your own conclusions.