I was a late adopter of LED bulbs. I detested the compact fluorescent bulbs and bought maybe one or two total. So around the time we were being forced to abandon incandescent bulbs, I began to stockpile them.
I got concerned that I'd deplete my stash in some of the highly used fixtures. The bathrooms have arrays of 4 60 Watt bulbs, and the master bath has a total of 8 60 W bulbs. With the high usage and so many bulbs, I could see my reserve going away.
So I tried some LED bulbs. Cree bulbs sold by Home Depot had a very good color rendering index and a suitable color temperature. I am very pleased with them. I can't see much if any difference between them and incandescent bulbs. They have been totally reliable; no failures in the time I've had them. That's around two years now. I'm not sure if they're still sold at Home Depot, but I'd buy more as needed.
For those of you having physiological issues with LED bulbs, I have read about their flicker characteristics. They use switching converters to step down line voltage to a lower voltage for the LEDs. With a low enough frequency and chintzy filtering, they can produce flickering light. It's akin to fluorescent flicker, but at higher frequency. It's not nearly as obvious, but detectable with quick eye movements. Sometimes you can see its effects by waving your fingers quickly in front of a bulb. Many people feel fatigued by these lights and some have adverse reactions. Cheap generally means marginal design and possibly more flicker. Expensive is no guarantee, but the odds are better for less flicker. Some countries are looking into flicker and grading bulbs accordingly. I haven't seen that parameter associated with bulbs in the US, but maybe someday we will hopefully see it.
