pls see attached a LED lamp assembly I made using 24 number (supposed to be) 1/2 Watt (3.6V driven) LEDs, these have a lense which does not make a spot focus but spreads the light. I could drive only upto 1/4 Watt w/o generating much heat, but these are a nice setup in a small room of 4x6 feet (typically a toilet or bathroom). In such places a 5W CFL would be generally used, but it is seen that due to too frequent switch-on/off (20-30 per day) of the CFL it gets damaged and does not work after about 7-12 months.
As you can see there is a LM317 current limiting circuit mounted on the aluminium sheet, which is used to mount the LEDs
These are set up as 8 parallel arrays of 3 each in series.
Out here in India they costed me Rs 10 each + Rs. 10 for LM317 + others = Rs. 280 approx = 6.2 USD, and a 5 Watt CFL costs Rs 110 = 2.44 USD
Comments and suggestions please....