What Are The Advantages Of LED Lighting?
LEDs, or Light Emitting Diodes, are the light source in solar powered products. In order to understand what advantages the LED offers over incandescent lights, we must first understand how the LED works. A light emitting diode is composed of a semiconductor diode. A semiconductor is a material that can conduct electricity. A semiconductor diode is composed of a semiconductive crystal that has added impurities in order to create a positive and negative side; since current flows in one direction through the diode. A region is then created in between the positive and negative zones, called a PN junction, which is where the action takes place within the diode; in our case it emits light.
Incandescent lights, on the other hand, operate on a different principle. Current is sent through a filament. The filament resists the flow of electrons through it, which causes the filament to generate heat. The radiated heat produces a visible light.
So what then are the advantages?
- Efficiency: An incandescent light requires much more energy to properly heat the filament in order to generate light. The light produced by an LED is a cool light. More light is produced per watt in an LED than an incandescent. Even more energy can be saved if the light is solar powered.
-Color: LEDs do not require filters, like colored bulbs, in order to create a specific colored light. Color is produced based on the material of the semiconductor.
-Size: LEDs come in many different sizes since they are not constrained to creating a vacuum in which to house the filament. LEDs can be smaller than 2 mm.
-On/Off Time: An LED takes only microseconds to achieve its full brightness. This is ideal in a solar powered light that is running off of a battery that has determinate energy life.
-Cycling: In applications that are cycled between on and off frequently, like an outdoor solar light, LEDs are ideal since they won't burn out quickly.
-Lifetime: The lifetime of the LED greatly exceeds its incandescent, and even its flourescent counterparts. An average lifetime of an incandescent light is 1,000-2,000 hours and a flourescent bulb is 10,000-15,000 hours. The LED, on the other hand, has a typical lifetime of 35,000-50,000 hours.
-Light Dispersement: An LED is designed to focus its light, so where an incandescent or flourescent may seem brighter since the light radiates in all directions, the LED light can be directed to a specific location without the use of an external reflector.
-Ecologically Friendly: LEDs are more efficient than others, as stated above; so they conserve electricity, especially if they are solar powered. LEDs do not contain toxic chemicals like flourescent bulbs do. Several incandescent and flourescent bulbs will be used during the lifetime of a single LED. If your desire is to light a space and save the environment, then the clear choice is the LED. Solar powered LEDs are an additional benefit in that they require no additional energy costs.
