Why LED Light

Why L.E.D. (Light Emitting Diode) Light?

The future of lighting rests in LEDs or Light Emitting Diodes. These bulbs use almost 90% less electricity than standard bulbs, last up to and beyond ten years and produce an even spectrum of light that is unparalleled. Soon, these will be in every home and office. In anticipation of this, we offer LED bulbs, lights to light your home and create a better world.

Low Cost to Maintain: LED costs less to maintain, reduces heating and utility costs, and reduces the need for higher rated cable, transformers and electrical components.

Waterproof: LED lamps are very resilient and virtually waterproof.

Durable: LED lamps are durable, shock and vibration proof.

Smaller: LEDs are smaller and more compact, providing more light output per square inch than any other LED Source while providing precise beam control.

Unique Lighting Effects: Solid State LED lamps can be controlled with a processor to achieve unique lighting effects, utilizing a wide rainbow of colors.

Future of Lighting: LED is the future and this technology is now providing new alternative solutions to conventional lamp sources.

Energy efficiency: 10 times more efficient than a fluorescent light bulb

40 times better than a standard incandescent bulb.

Long Lasting: over 50,000 hours

Cool: Cool lighting

Safe: Low voltage

Environmentally-friendly: No mercury

Colorful: Different colors

Where LED lighting can be used?

Energy efficiency: 10 times more efficient than a fluorescent light bulb

Unlike traditional LED Sources which tend to wash out merchandise, LEDs allow for more precise, purposeful light and reflect properties otherwise unseen. You are given an unmistakable, concise image to view. A few examples:

• Bookshelf lighting
• Cabinet lighting
• Camper/RV interior lighting
• Closet lighting
• Desk lighting
• Hallway lighting
• Handheld flashlight
• Home interior lighting
• Jewelry case lighting
• Office interior lighting
• Showcase lighting
• Stadium lighting
• Stairway lighting
• Streetlights
• Under-counter lighting
• Workbench lighting
• Indicator light
• Christmas tree lighting
• And more...

The advantage of LED lights

An LED circuit will approach 80% efficiency, which means 80% of the electrical energy is converted to light energy.

The future of household lighting will soon be the wide spread adoption and use of white LED light bulbs to replace incandescent lighting for everyday use in our homes, in street lights, outdoor signs, and offices.

The operational life of current white LED lamps is 100,000 hours. This is 11 years of continuous operation, or 22 years of 50% operation. The long operational life of a led lamp is a stark contrast to the average life of an incandescent bulb, which is approximately 5000 hours. If the lighting device needs to be embedded into a very inaccessible place, using LEDs would virtually eliminate the need for routine bulb replacement.

There is no comparison between the cost of LED lights vs. traditional incandescent options. With incandescent bulbs, the true cost of the bulb is the cost of replacement bulbs and the labor expense and time needed to replace them. These are significant factors, especially where there are a large number of installed bulbs. For office buildings and skyscrapers, maintenance costs to replace bulbs can be enormous. These issues can all be virtually eliminated with the LED option.

The key strength of LED lighting is reduced power consumption. When designed properly, an LED circuit will approach 80% efficiency, which means 80% of the electrical energy is converted to light energy. The remaining 20% is lost as heat energy. Compare that with incandescent bulbs which operate at about 20% efficiency (80% of the electrical energy is lost as heat). In real money terms, if a 100 Watt incandescent bulb is used for 1 year, with an electrical cost of 10 cents/kilowatt hour, $88 will be spent on electricity costs. Of the $88 expense, $70 will have been used to heat the room, not light the room. If an 80% efficient LED system had been used, the electricity cost would be $23 per year - there would be a cost savings of $65 on electricity during the year. Realistically the cost savings would be higher as most incandescent light bulbs blow out within a year and require replacements whereas LED light bulbs can be used easily for a decade without burning out.

The main limitation to the adoption of white LED lighting as a lighting standard is the current high cost of led bulbs. Although the cost keeps going down, LED light bulbs are still expensive. A single AC bulb (17 LED), replacing a 25 watt incandescent, will cost about $40. Although LED's are expensive, the cost is recouped over time and in energy cost savings. Factor in that it is significantly cheaper to maintain led lights, the best value comes from commercial use where maintenance and replacement costs are expensive. Traffic lights and outdoor signs, for example, are being switched over to LED's in many cities. Smaller arrays, such as those in flashlights, headlamps and small task lights are great for specialty and outdoor use. LED based automotive headlights are current being used in high end luxury cars.

It will be interesting to see what developments are coming for more residential applications of LED lights. LED lighting technology has been researched and developed for the past two decades and we are beginning to see practical applications from this work. There is already wide spread use of LED traffic signs and LED headlights where a premium is placed on a reliable LED Source that is cheaper and less labor intensive to maintain. We in the industry are certain that tomorrows LED lights will last longer and consume even less power than today’s energy efficient bulbs. LED lighting will be used to replace virtually every type of light, bulb, and lamp that is currently in use.

Advantages of LED Lighting

LEDs offer numerous benefits due to their mode of operation:

Energy Efficiency

LEDs are highly efficient. In traffic signal lights, a strong market for LEDs, a red traffic signal head that contains 196 LEDs draws 10W versus its incandescent counterpart that draws 150W. Various estimates of potential energy savings range from 82% to 93%. With the red signal operating about 50% of the day, the complete traffic signal unit is estimated to save 35-40%. It is estimated that replacing incandescent lamps in all of America’s some 260,000 traffic signals (red, green and yellow) could reduce energy consumption by nearly 2.5 billion kWh. At the end of 1997, more than 150,000 signals were retrofitted, almost all of them red.

In architectural applications, the greatest penetration of LEDs has been in exit signs, both new signs and retrofits. LED retrofit products, which come in various forms including light bars, panels and screw in LED lamps, typically draw 2-5W per sign, resulting in significant savings versus incandescent lamps with the bonus benefit of much longer life, which in turn reduces maintenance requirements. Some of these products are designed specifically for either on-face or two-face exit signs. Many new LED exit signs are also available, including edge-lit designs. LED products currently make up about 50% of the exit sign market. A study conducted by the Lighting Research Center in 1998 found that about 80% of new exit signs being sold in the U.S. utilize LEDs. Note that most retrofits are restricted to use in stencil-type signs versus panel-type signs.

Long Life

Some LEDs are projected to produce a long service life of about 100,000 hours. For this reason LEDs are ideal for hard-to-reach/maintain fixtures such as exit sign lighting and, combined with its durability, pathway lighting. This service life can be affected by the application and environmental factors, including heat and if being overdriven by the power supply.

Range of Colors

LEDs are available in a range of colors (see above), including white light. White light can also be produced through color mixing of red, blue and green LEDs. In addition, through the innovative combination of various-colored LEDs, dramatic color-changing effects can be produced from a single fixture through dynamic activation of various sets of LEDs

Manufacturers offer fixtures that employ this principle. They can offer track, theatrical, underwater, outdoor and other fixtures utilizing variable-intensity LEDs that can provide more than 16.7 million colors, including white light. These fixtures can be individually controlled via a PC, DMX controller or proprietary controller to generate effects including fixed color, color washing, cross fading, random color changing, strobing and variable strobing. Dr. Nadarajah Narendran of the Lighting Research Center is doing some exciting research on the use of colored LEDs in retail display lighting. Preliminary research suggests that using colored LED background lighting combined with spot lighting on merchandise may improve energy efficiency and reduce maintenance costs while catching the eye of the consumer in a fresh manner.

No UV Emissions/Little Infrared

LEDs produce no UV radiation and little heat, making them ideal for illuminating objects, such as works of art, that are sensitive to UV light.

Durable

LEDs are highly rugged. They feature no filament that can be damaged due to shock and vibrations. They are subject to heat, however, and being overdriven by the power supply.

Small Size/Design Flexibility

A single LED is very small and produces little light overall. However, this weakness is actually its strength. LEDs can be combined in any shape to produce desired lumen packages as the design goals and economics permit. In addition, LEDs can be considered miniature light fixtures; distribution of light can be controlled by the LEDs’ epoxy lens, simplifying the construction of architectural fixtures designed to utilize LEDs. A controller can be connected to an LED fixture to selectively dim individual LEDs, resulting in the dynamic control of distribution, light output and color. Finally, DC power enables the unit to be easily adaptable to different power supplies.

Other Benefits

The other benefits of LEDs include:

• Lights instantly
• Can be easily dimmed
• Silent operation
• Low-voltage power supply (increased safety)