LED lamps are the new generation lamps which have LED's or Light emitting Diodes as their light source instead of any gas or electrical filaments. These Lamps make use of the concept of Solid state Lightning, and hence fall into one of the categories of Solid State lightning Lamps.
LED Lamps are also called as Bars or Illuminators. LED lamps are generally a number of Light emitting diodes, packed together to perform the function of emission of light.
LED lamps come in various shapes, designs and sizes. Some examples of the common LED Lamps are: 1)Small Edison lamp 2) Bayonet bulbs , etc.
Most of the LED lamps require low voltage, and work appropriately in the normal household supply of electricity. (120-240 V AC )
LED lamps, as compared to Neon lamps, are a better source of Illumination. They last longer than the Neon lamps and require lesser voltage to run on.
Earlier, many different types of LED's were in use. For example, infra-red, yellow, green, red and orange LED's were greatly in use till the 1990's, when Blue, indigo and violet LED's replaced them.
A single LED, individually is of no use. It can not provide ample light to be used as an illuminator, nor can it be used to produce even the Visible spectra of light. Hence a large number of LED's are required to make an LED lamp. Also, sometimes, LED's are used along with metals such as Yellow phosphor, etc. to produce the desired lights of suitable wavelength.
Two or more different colored LED's can be combined in a lamp to produce white light.
LED's have very low internal resistance of their own. They mostly act as negative resistances to the source, and hence withdraw a large amount of current from the source. This either leads to the destruction of the LED or the destruction of the source. Hence ballasts, or positive resistances are required in series in the circuits containing LED's or LED lamps in order to prevent them from destroying themselves and maintain a smooth functioning.
LED Lights and lamps are better than the traditional incandescent lamps because of a lot of reasons:
1) In Incandescent lights, 98% of the electric energy supplied is wasted in the form of Heat.
Whereas in LED lamps, most of the electric energy is used to produce Light. Hence LED lamps help to save electricity and energy.
2) LED's come in various colors other than the traditional white and yellow colors.
3) They provide a very high and bright intensity of light, 100 Lumen per watt approximately which is better than most of the lighting systems.
4) They are very durable as compared to incandescent lights, as they do not have any tubes or filaments which can get broken.
5) Average life span of a LED light is about 7000 hours, which is 7 times the life of an incandescent bulb.
6) LED's lamps are fully dimmable. Unlike fluorescent lights, LED support dimming fully and can be connected to a dimming device easily.
7) LED lamps do not have Mercury, like most fluorescent lamps and other HID bulbs. Hence the chances of pollution through mercury are also reduced.
Hence, these days, LED lights and Lamps are the best to use. LED lighting technology is currently the best available in the market today.
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Article Written By
Tom Dahne
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