Most people are not aware that LED Lighting is in fact quite an established technology having been originally used in the 1960's .
LED light bulbs were initially used as a replacement for incandescent indicators and displays in laboratory apparatus and eventually in TV's, watches, radios and calculators. It has only been in recent times that the technology has become financially viable to be used in homes and businesses .
EFFICIENT POWER...
Average light bulbs only convert around 10% of the electrical energy it consumes into light with the rest being output as heat, LED lights on the other hand converts more than 70% into usable directional light making them far more efficient .
While everyday Halogen, fluorescent and other lights have a average 6000 hour lifespan, LED's will last for more than 50,000 hours .
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY...
LED lighting is safe, environmentally friendly and contains no toxic mercury.
LED lights use 90% a smaller amount energy than standard incandescent bulbs and less than half the power of compact fluorescent lamps. Consuming a smaller amount energy results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions being released into our environment .
LED's are designed to last for 50,000 hours more resulting in less resources being used as there is no longer the need to replace used bulbs that gets thrown into the dustbin The LED life cycle is also healthier for the environment because of their long lifespan there is much a lesser amount of waste from burn out LED bulbs and this reduces the load on recycling depots and rubbish dumps .
The below is a short history of man-made light
Our entire history of light has been an inefficient one! Why? Because we have always used heat as a source of light - we have used wax, oil and gas to burn in order to generate light. This process is highly inefficient as most of the power is wasted producing heat and not light. Even fluorescent lights uses a type of gas which is electrified to heat up and produce light .
The basic method has been " Heat it up and it glows"
For more than 120 Years, incandescent light bulbs have brightened and warmed our lives. Electric powered bulbs were a major improvement over candle, gas and oil light sources - but they are extremely ineffecient. Up to 90% of the power going into the bulb is converted to heat!
While fluorescent lights are far more effective than incandescent bulbs the fact that they contain mercury, one of the most poisonous substances on earth, makes them a hazard to use and makes disposal very dangerous. Mercury seeps into the ground and contaminates water and soil for thousands of years .
In the past 4 years a new light source has emerged that is sufficiently bright and cost-effective to be used for general illumination.
The Light Emitting Diode aka the LED uses far a reduced amount of energy and lasts many times longer than all bulbs and contains no lead or mercury . The first commercially viable LED was introduced in 2006 and now lighting manufacturers around the world are producing a whole new class of LED products for general illumination.
Light Emitting Diodes (LED's) are solid state lighting components. They are not flimsy or easily broken making them easy to use and transport . LED's are many times more cost-effective than Incandescent Bulbs. Just as vacuum tubes were replaced with solid state components, the last remaining vacuum tube light bulbs are being replaced by solid state components.
LED lights are essentially a circuit board, when electrical power is passed through these components it produces and electronic light .
The first LED's for commercial applications were red. They functioned as on/off indicators in electronic devices such as VCR's, calculators, strereo systems and even automobile sub-systems. Eventually LED's were produced in green and amber as well. The major breakthrough can in 1989 when CREE, INC. of Durham in the United States, started shipping the first commercially viable blue LED based on silicon carbide. The blue LED enabled white LED's to be made because mixing red, blue and green light produces white.
Today a more effective and cost effective white LED is revolutionising the lighting world. The white LED, based on a blue LED chip coated with phosphor is bright and efficient enough to be used in general illumination.
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