100 Methods Of Led Lights Domination
“L-E-D”. When it comes to lighting, you’re hearing these three letters over and over again… you see it posted around lighting websites, and its starting to bug you. It seems to be an exciting new trend…some kind of new innovative light…but you do not know what it is. You’d like to know very well what everybody’s talking about- what’s all the rage?
LED’s – LEDS – To put it simply, LED’s are diodes that…(huh?) hang on, I’ll explain: a diode may be the simplest type of semiconductor device. (what’s that?) wow, you’re impatient: A semi-conductor is a material with the ability to conduct electrical current. Basically, rather than emitting light from a vacuum (as within an incandescent bulb) or a gas (as in a CFL), LED emits light from the piece of solid matter, its semi-conductor. Stated very simply, an LED produces light when electrons move around within its semiconductor structure.
They tell you when to avoid and go. They have ruled your driving, saved your daily life countless times, and that little red man made you wait around till you were able to cross the street. That’s right – the red, yellow and green on the traffic lights are Led lights right in front of your nose. In fact, Light Emitting Diodes have already been around for quite a while, conceptualized in 1907. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s that practical applications were found and LED’s were first manufactured. LED was previously used exclusively for traffic signals, brake lights and headlights on luxury cars, and indicator lights on appliances.
You probably didn’t even understand that LED lights were lighting up your digital clocks, flashlights and telling you when you’ve got a new voice message on your own cell phone. Expensive at the start, as applications grew, benefits were discovered and manufacturing costs went down. According to the American Lighting Association (ALA), lighting manufacturers have invested considerable time, effort and research into adapting this super energy-efficient technology for household use. The technology has advanced enough to win approval from the government’s popular and well-respected Energy Star� program. So here’s why:
They do more for less. LED’s are efficient-producing many light from the little power. For instance, one 5-watt LED can produce more light (measured in lumens) than one standard 75-watt incandescent bulb. The 5-watt LED could do the job of the 75-watt incandescent at 1/15 of the energy consumption. LED’s save energy and, therefore, money. It is because in LED lights, 90% of energy is changed into light, while in incandescent bulbs 90% of energy goes to heat and only 10% to visible light.
They last longer. LED is virtually maintenance free – they don’t really have a filament which will burn out, so they last much longer. A typical “longevity” household bulb will burn for approximately 2,000 hours. An LED might have a useful lifespan up to 100,000 hours! By some sources, LED’s can last so long as 40 years. Imagine not having to change a light bulb for years. You can find LED products available this season that will make frequent light bulb changes so 20th century.
How it actually works… (skip this part if you don’t really care) Light is a form of energy which might be released by an atom. It really is made up of many small particle-like packets, called photons, which are the most elementary units of light. LED’s are specially constructed release a a large number of photons outward.When an electric charge strikes the semiconductor, a little electrical current, which is measured by watts (oh! so that’s what they mean by ‘has low wattage’!) is passed through the semiconductor material. this causes the electrons to go around, become “excited” and present off photons. Almost all of the power emitted is light energy.
Within an ordinary diode, such as incandescent bulbs, the semiconductor material itself eventually ends up absorbing a lot of the light energy so it produces more heat energy than light energy.That is completely wasted energy, unless you’re using the lamp as a heater, just because a huge part of the available electricity isn’t going toward producing visible light. LED’s generate very little heat, relatively speaking. A much higher percentage of the electrical power is going directly to generating light, which cuts down on the electricity demands considerably. As you can plainly see in the diagram,they are housed in a plastic bulb that concentrates the light in a particular direction. A lot of the light from the diode bounces off the sides of the bulb, traveling on through the rounded end.
They are a better buy (over time). Until recently, LED’s were too expensive to use for most lighting applications because they’re built around advanced semiconductor material. The cost of semiconductor devices has plummeted over the past decade, however, making LED’s a far more cost-effective lighting option for a wide range of situations. While led stadium lighting might be more costly than incandescent lights up front, a 60-watt LED replacement bulb runs in your community of $100, and also the lower-output versions, used for things such as spot lighting, will cost between $40 and $80.
That’s in comparison to a $1 incandescent and a $2 fluorescent bulb.The truth is, even at $100 for a single bulb, LEDs find yourself saving money over time, as you only need a couple of every decade and you spend less money on home lighting, that may take into account about 7 percent of your electric bill [source: Greener Choices]. But don’t worry, the scary price you have to pay upfront won’t last too long, the lighting industry in general expects LED costs to come down quickly. Lighting Science Group, a company that develops and manufactures LED lighting, estimates a 50 percent price reduction within 2 yrs.