Ann Arbor to use 100% LED lighting

"The city strung its holiday cheer with about 114,000 LED lights and plans to convert all of its downtown public lighting starting with more than 1,000 LED streetlights. The effort is aligned with other North American cities like Raleigh, N.C., and Toronto, which have both started similar energy-saving efforts.

When Ann Arbor reaches its ambitious goal, city officials expect to see energy use for public lighting cut in half and a reduction of 2,425 tons CO2 annually. The city also expects a short payback of 3.8 years on its investment, which was funded in part with a $630,000 grant from the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority." (Inhabitat, Jan. 26, 2008)

WOW. I'm glad to see LED lighting coming to the fore, and really glad to see dramatic moves like this. I'm a huge fan of LEDs... they are cheap (sorta), energy efficient, produce good light, and unlike CCFLs, are dimable. 

Oh yeah, and I forgot to add: they never burn out! OK, well, they take a long time.

It's true.  Not all CFLs are appropriate for dimmer applications (if you use a normal CFL, you tend to get some buzzing and sometimes flickering).  However, there are dimmable CFLs out there.  Here's an example.  So until LEDs are a real option for home installations, don't just settle for incandescent bulbs.