These days, city officials are keen on sustainability, and energy-use reduction has become a key goal for the city. I had the “tough” job of visiting Indian Wells last month for an LED City^® Council meeting, and while I was there I had the city’s management analyst Susan Weisbart give me a tour of some of the city’s LED lighting installations.

Indian Wells was the first California city to become an LED City. The LED City program helps municipalities speed up the adoption of energy-saving LED lights by connecting them with information they need to make informed decisions about installing LED lights.

One of the first LED lighting installations in Indian Wells involved swapping out incandescent lights that lit the outside of city hall and other municipal buildings with 12 Watt Cree LR6™ recessed lights. It’s a change that city officials say saves nearly $7,000 a year in energy costs. That’s not counting the maintenance savings of not having to replace burned out bulbs, since the LED lights they installed are designed to last 50,000 hours – or 17 years if they’re on 8 hours a day!

The city also has plans to replace the 50 Watt halogen lights illuminating the signature palm trees lining city streets with 11 Watt LED lights. Get this: The city estimates it can save $10,095 in energy costs per year once the project is complete!

Watch my LED tour and interview with Susan to see what Indian Wells is doing to save energy and money:

My disdain for mercury-laden fluorescent lighting has grown even stronger since I started working for a company that makes LED lighting. That’s because I now sit in an office lit by beautiful, dimmable LED lights and it’s pretty nice. I’ve never felt the need to switch off the lights here. I’ve also learned a lot about the downsides of fluorescent lighting: the headaches, migraines, eye strain and discomfort those icky lights can trigger in some people thanks to their notorious, sometimes subtle, sometimes painfully obvious flicker.

I must admit that even though I’m not a fan of fluorescent lights, they are more efficient than energy-sucking incandescent lights. But they also contain toxic mercury. Sadly, a lot of people don’t realize you’re not supposed to toss CFLs in garbage. There are special ways you’re supposed to dispose of CFLs (and all fluorescent lights) so you don’t muck up landfills with mercury.

Of course I crave the day when everyone will get to live, work and shop under energy-efficient LED lights. But until then, it’s comforting to know I’m not alone in hating fluorescents. A quick Twitter search of “fluorescent lights” shows a slew of disparaging comments about the lights. Some from the past week are so amusing I have to share them:

If you’re sick of fluorescent lighting too, then become a fan of “Banishing Ugly Fluorescent Lighting” on facebook. I’m not sure it will make a difference, but it always feels good to complain in the comfort of other like-minded people.

But it’s one thing to say you’ll conserve energy and reduce utility bills when you use LED lighting, and it’s another thing to actually experience the savings. So when I heard how much energy and money a large Orlando resort is saving by using LED lights, I had to share the details with you.

The Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort is one of the largest resorts in Orlando, Florida, and it recently underwent a multi-million dollar renovation that included replacing traditional, antiquated lighting fixtures in its 54 hallways, as well as its freshly refurbished 10,000-square-foot lobby.

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The amount of energy and money the resort is saving with its new LED lights is remarkable.

According to Regency Lighting, replacing the resort’s hallway lighting with Cree LR6™ recessed downlights is projected to have a cumulative savings of approximately $131,659 in the first year, with a return on investment of about nine months. These savings include projected energy, labor and cooling expenses, as well as the cost of the new LED lights. By the fourth year of the LED lighting installation, this resort is expected to save more than half a million dollars!

LED lights make good sense for the resort’s lobbies and hallways because they’re lit 24-hours a day, seven days a week. The resort replaced halogen lighting fixtures located between each hotel room with 636 Cree LR6 LED lights. Those lights only consume 10.5 watts of power, an impressive 90-percent energy savings over the two 50-watt halogen bulbs they replaced! But they didn’t stop there.

In the hotel’s lobby – which features live bamboo, animal statues and an indoor garden – halogen lights were replaced with Cree LRP-38™ LED bulbs, saving more than 80 percent on energy consumption alone.

So the next time you’re staying at a hotel look up at the lights in the lobby and hallways. If they’re not LED lights, tell the manager the hotel needs to join the LED lighting revolution. After all, one of the key parts of a revolution is rallying others to join the movement.

Wanda is the Director of Development for the Caldwell County Habitat for Humanity in Lenoir, NC. She explained that the area’s population means the Caldwell County chapter is small compared to some of the other affiliates of the national nonprofit organization. The Caldwell County Habitat traditionally helps move 7 to 9 families from poverty housing each year, she said.

“This is done through a partnership process that enables families to learn, grow, and build while earning sweat equity for their own future home.  It is not just a matter of building houses, but building lives along the way,” she wrote. Here’s the winning entry:

The five Cree LR6 recessed downlights she won will actually be used in the Habitat’s main office, which is undergoing the renovation. Here’s what she wrote on her photo submission:

“Caldwell County Habitat is in process of renovating an “ailing” old building that will house our offices and our ReStore. We’re basically starting from “scratch” on lighting. We need your help!!!!”

The LR6 offers big energy and maintenance savings and a long lifetime. Just how long? Well, the LR6 is designed to last 50,000 hours – that’s five times the life of the best compact fluorescent bulbs. And her new LR6 LED fixtures consume just 10.5 Watts of electricity each and are dimmable to 20 percent. That can add up to real energy savings for an organization that can help more people with each penny it saves.

We’ve already received a lot of good entries for the February LED lighting giveaway. If you’d like to enter, submit a photo of bad lighting in your home or office here.

Weather.com says there’s a 100 percent chance of precipitation. It’s supposed to rain in Raleigh pretty much all day. I’ve never been ice skating in the rain when it’s 40 degrees, but I’m pretty sure it’s not that fun.

Sadly, we won’t be able to reschedule the ice skating Tweetup because the outdoor ice rink is closing for the season this weekend.

But we truly want to bring together Triangle tweeps, preferably under LED lights, so stay tuned. Hopefully we’ll be able to organize another Tweetup in the spring.

Thanks to everyone who registered. Leave us a comment suggesting where in the Triangle you think our next Tweetup should be. We’ll randomly select two commenters at 4 p.m. Tuesday to win a Coleman Xponent Collapsible Lantern.

The first person I met in Studio A was James Robinson (@jerobins on Twitter). When he found out I work at Cree, he quickly produced a flashlight from his pocket and proudly declared that it had a Cree LED inside. Sweet, I thought, I’ve been at this event for 5 minutes and someone else is dropping LED references for me.

As we ate our lunch, WRAL meteorologist/executive producer Nate Johnson told about some of the station’s social media efforts. He showed us the master Twitter list of all employees who tweet and told us about the station’s new site for moms.

Afterward, we gathered for tours of the TV Station. As I waited for my group to go, the guy who runs the @chathamnc Twitter account introduced himself. He tweets about news happening in Chatham County, NC, and also follows Cree on Twitter. He warmed my LED-loving heart when he told me that he really believes LED lights will replace CFLs someday. After all, he asked, why would anyone want lights that contain mercury like CFLs when they can have LED lights? Good question.

Overall, the WRAL Tweetup was a great opportunity to meet new people and get a feel for what goes on behind-the-scenes at the TV Station. But it was even better knowing that out of the approximately 50 people in the room, there were a couple who were proud to tout LEDs!

It means the LED Lighting Revolution really is gaining momentum, from a street corner of Raleigh, NC to a Tweetup at WRAL. Cree’s Ice Skating Tweetup has been rescheduled to Tuesday, Feb. 9. If you’d like a chance to meet some tweeps and ice skate under LED lights at the downtown Raleigh outdoor ice rink, sign up for free tickets here.

“Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, LEDs are here to stay!

One, Two, Three, Four, Kick Fluorescents out the door!”

That’s not all. We had signs. A lot of signs. Hand-painted signs. Signs that declared our love for energy-efficient LED lights.

You’re probably wondering if we lost our minds. But I can assure you, we had a plan. You see, at approximately 5:45 p.m., just as our toes started to go numb in the chilly temperatures, a group of 100+ people rounded the corner.

But this wasn’t just a random mob, they were folks who knew a lot about LEDs. The group was on an LED Lighting Walking Tour of downtown Raleigh as part of the Department of Energy Solid State Lighting Research and Design Conference (or DOE SSL R&D for short).

Seeing their shocked faces was all it took for us to spring to action. We hoisted our signs in the air and started our chant.

Within seconds, digital cameras, cell phone and video cameras were fixed on us as we continued to walk in our circle. I tried not to make eye contact with anyone because it’s hard to stay composed when you’re hollering a chant. But I couldn’t miss the smiles, the curious looks, the camera flashes—and even a smattering of applause.

So what the heck were we doing? We were showing industry professionals that we’re serious about the LED Lighting Revolution. We truly believe LED lighting is better than incandescent, fluorescent and other lighting technologies. We truly believe the energy savings that can be achieved by switching to LED lights is worthwhile.

And we wanted those conference goers — the very people who have the potential to help change the way we light the world – to know that we’re out there paving the way for LED lighting by raising awareness.

LEDs Rock! If you were at the conference and saw the rally, please let me know in the comments section. I would love to see your photos and video.

But while much of the world was focusing its attention on CFLs, the city of Raleigh was setting its sights on even more energy-efficient technology: LED lighting.

Yesterday we celebrated Raleigh’s three year LED City® anniversary. In February 2007, Raleigh became the first city in the world to join the Cree LED City program, an initiative to deploy and promote LED lighting in cities throughout the world.

Raleigh joined the program by installing LED lights at just one spot in the city to see what results the city would achieve. Three years later, city officials are so impressed with LED lighting that Raleigh now has more than 40 installations, ranging from accent and indoor lighting to street and parking lot lighting.

So how much is the city saving by using LED lights? City officials estimate the city is saving $215,000 a year on energy and maintenance costs.

In fact, city spokeswoman Jayne Kirkpatrick is so jazzed about the savings that she tried to quantify it for taxpayers. She told us that the city’s annual savings from LED lighting is the equivalent of four police officer or firefighter salaries; five years of sidewalk repairs; five years of sports field renovations or the cost of nearly two brand-new garbage trucks.

Want to see some of the places that boast LED lighting in Raleigh? Take a look at this Google map I put together. The map includes video of the following locations: Underground parking deck at Raleigh Convention Center, street lights outside Progress Energy Headquarters, pedestrian lighting at Exchange Plaza, street lights at Raleigh Convention Center, architectural lighting on City Plaza Art Towers and solar street lights at Campbell University Law School parking lot.

View Raleigh, NC: An LED City Tour in a larger map

If you’re interested in getting your city to try energy-efficient LED lights, here are the steps your city needs to take.

Well, I think this Bay Area Home Depot associate adequately summed it up when he said to FORTUNE magazine reporter Michael V. Copeland: “Buy, hey, it’s a revolution, and sometimes that takes time.”

LED lighting is out there. LED lights are initially being installed in produce and electronics sections at 650 Walmart stores, they’re illuminating the pedestrian entrance to the Brooklyn end of the Brooklyn Bridge, even lighting up a dorm at N.C. State University.

So if you’re feeling skeptical (or eager like us because you want LED lighting everywhere right now), take a look at this article by senior FORTUNE writer Copeland. Here’s the lead to get you going:

“The $100 billion global lighting industry is undergoing radical change: New office buildings and retail outlets are abandoning fluorescent lighting in favor of LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, those tiny, energy-efficient, long-lasting, and blindingly bright points of light. Giants such as GE (GE) and Philips are shifting production from incandescent bulbs to LEDs. Even the local Home Depot (HD) — which today probably stocks only a couple of LED lighting products — will soon carry a bouquet of LED bulbs, ultimately edging out fluorescents and halogen lamps. By the end of the decade, analysts predict, LEDs will be the dominant source for commercial and residential lighting.”

Read the rest of it here.

In the LED lighting biz, we often hear from people who say they bought an LED bulb at the grocery store and it stunk. As a result, they write off LED lighting as an expensive technology that doesn’t live up to its price tag, or billing.

At Cree, our hearts seriously break a little each time we hear that. Our booth at the International Builders’ Show explains why. You see, we’re making these gorgeous recessed LED lights that provide beautiful, warm color and are designed to last a crazy long time (50,000 hours). These LED lights are the real deal. They’re not too dim. They’re not bluish. They don’t flicker.

Yet, like anything, it often only takes one bad apple to give everyone else a bad name. My co-worker Deb actually blogged today about the LED bulbs you can buy in the store that are supposed to be a 60-Watt equivalent.  Deb wrote: “Unfortunately, except for a few, they are mostly too dim or bluish, or worse, flicker and then go out for good.”

So we’re hoping that our booth at the International Builders’ Show will help SHOW people that LED lighting is ready for the home. It just depends on the type of LED lighting you use and how you use it.

All the lights you see in these photos from our booth are Cree LED lights, and we think they’re beautiful. True, they’re not light bulbs that you would screw into your desk lamp, but they provide very efficient overhead lighting for your home. And that, my friends, makes our hearts sing.