As California lawmakers push to stop the sale of incandescent lightbulbs in the foreseeable future, now might be the time to start looking for new ways to light up the home.

We know about fluorescents — both the good and the bad. But there is another technology to consider for reducing energy consumption that could end up becoming the residential lighting of choice: LEDs.

Solid-state lighting — commonly known as light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, for short — was born of the semiconductor industry. On a very basic level, LEDs are about color and light transmitted to our eyes via a variety of inorganic semiconductor materials. Many LED fixtures and light bulbs come equipped with special metal heat sinks to absorb and dissipate heat — which means energy goes into the light itself and is not lost as heat — especially if the fixture is designed to be on for hours at a time. Some LED manufacturers say their lights will stay bright for as long as 50,000 hours. That means they will last 17 years if the lights are turned on for eight hours a day.

For the most part, when talking about LEDs and general lighting, we don’t think of one LED alone. LEDs are typically clustered into straight lines, geometric shapes or irregular forms.

The average person might not fully comprehend the engineering that goes into LED design for something even as small as a decorative tea light that sells for $2.75. But it’s simple enough to see the practical applications already in place. Traffic lights, green and red exit signs in public buildings, automobile indicator lights, emergency strip lights in airplanes, compact flashlights and lanterns, garden pathway lights, bicycle lights, adhesive minilights for brightening drawers and closets, clocks, cell phones, coffeemakers and many of the new small appliances incorporate LED lights in some fashion.

Now, however, LEDs are starting to become available in a “white” light, the kind normally used at home. Randall Whitehead, a residential lighting designer for nearly 30 years, recently switched all the lighting in his San Francisco flat to LEDs and fluorescents, using lights both warm and cool in color.

There is an incredible range of colors to work with when using LEDs. Some LEDs are bright and bluish — fine for a flashlight but not so pleasing in a home setting. Whitehead advises: “Use the warms to achieve a flattering glow, the cools when you want a space to have the quality of sunlight.”

He uses fluorescents mostly for decorative and general ambient illumination and LED fixtures in the kitchen as down and task lights and also to accent artwork and plants.

Whitehead says it’s possible to have good looks and savings, too. After he installed the more energy-efficient lighting, he says, the kilowatt portion of his Pacific Gas and Electric Co. bill dropped by about 60 percent.

There are good-quality LED products for residential use for both inside and outside, but selections are still few and prices are still high.

Permlight, a Southern California company in Tustin (Orange County), recently introduced a series of LED recessed cans for ceilings that are energy efficient and can be dimmed. Depending on size and style, prices for these specialized LEDs range from $95 to $150 each.

An average consumer should expect to pay $100 for a single in-ground fixture to light up the garden path or $30 a linear foot for rope light that tucks under stair treads. (These amounts would have to be multiplied depending on the lighting requirements of the space or area to be lit.)

Commercial, residential

A single LED diode is about the size of a small pea. Lighting designers who employ LEDs in their work most often use the kind in the shape of a domed cylinder that’s sliced off at the bottom with two protruding wires. These LEDs provide a sharp, focused light.

Lighting designers were the first to use LEDs, mostly in commercial settings. LEDs seem to inspire innovation and creativity because of their versatility and compact size.

They are energy efficient because it takes less LED wattage than incandescent wattage to create an equal “punch.” Also, unlike fluorescents, which contain mercury, LEDs can be dumped with the household trash.

As a result, LEDs mean big savings for businesses and for public places such as symphony halls, large municipal buildings and casinos. Casinos, in fact, were among the first of the big-time LED users — mostly for exterior signage and for slot machine digital displays. Think Fremont Street in Las Vegas, where a 400-foot LED canopy and computer-generated light show draws crowds nightly.

The number of LEDs required for commercial settings, however, is sky high. The new Seven World Trade Center in New York City, for example, uses 250,000 LEDs, .125 watt each.

You can add toymakers to the list of early users. Lighting expert Kevin “Fuzzy” Furry, owner of LED Effects in Rancho Cordova (Sacramento County), was playing “seriously” with LEDs beginning in 1986. He and a colleague would challenge each other to use LEDs in bigger and more innovative ways. Some of the early startups: wands that wrote in the air, a robot car with “feelings” (bright lights for angry, soft lights for happy) and toy rockets that could be tracked by LED streaks of light in the night sky.

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