The 411 of LED Lighting
Thursday, February 4th, 2010LED Lighting is a great economical light source. Under normal conditions, LEDs are rated by manufacturers to operate as long as 10 years! Practically all lighting fixtures manufactured today have their LED equivalent. Even holiday lights come in LED form, which costs 57 times less than regular holiday lights, by the way.
LED is an acronym for light emitting diode. Although you’ll see uses of the phrases LED bulb, it’s a little misleading given that they’re not quite bulbs in the traditional sense. As opposed to incandescent bulbs whose lighting ability comes from filaments that generate heat and produce light through electricity, LED “bulbs” are really just encapsulated tiny semiconductors. Power supplied to the semiconductors causes movement of electrons which creates photons- the end product being light that we see.
LED Lights stand out because unlike the typical light bulb that has a very sensitive filament or can shatter, these bulbs have a light emitting chip encased in crystal clear resin, making them nearly indestructible, thus eliminating the burned out light bulb issue. Not to say an LED will not burn out, but its life is approximately 60,000 hours, making this almost a non issue.
Because they do not use filaments requiring heat in order to produce light, less power is needed to fuel LEDs. These bulbs typically use 2-10 watts of electricity (which can be 1/3 to 1/30th of that used by incandescent or CFL lights).
The light emitted from LED bulbs is comparable to the color of daylight resulting in more natural appearing lighting. You may also notice that conventional light bulbs diffuse light over a larger area. This is not the case with LED bulbs, where lighting is “directional”. This emits stronger, brighter light. This is even the case with colored LED lights. Regular bulbs lose their brightness when color is added. The only downfall of this situation may be that more bulbs are needed to light up a large space. Also, you may want softer lighting in one area, in which case you’d opt for a conventional bulb.
These bulbs perform great in all sorts of weather. They’re designed to function anywhere in the spectrum of -40F to 180F. During the summer time, these bulbs emit less heat than regular bulbs, keeping your home cooler. They also are not affected by frigid temperatures. LED bulbs are very durable, lacking the fragile filaments of ordinary light bulbs.
LED lighting has its environmental benefits on top of everything else. Unlike regular bulbs, these bulbs do not contain any mercury.
For more information on home lighting visit Bellacor.