Led Lights
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Go Green With LED Lights in your Homes and Gardens
History and introduction of LED lightings
LED’s have been around since the 60s, but have mostly been relegated to showing the time in an alarm clock or the battery level of a video camera. Its use as a source of illumination was a challenging one for scientists. Light Emitting Diodes or LED Lightings- differ from traditional light sources in the way they produce light. In incandescent bulbs, a tungsten filament is heated by electric current until it glows or emits light. In a fluorescent lamp, an electric arc excites mercury atoms, which emit ultraviolet (UV) radiation. After striking the phosphor coating on the inside of glass tubes, the UV radiation is converted and emitted as visible light. On other hand LED’s are diodes made from semi-conductor materials. This is why they are referred to as “solid state” devices and relies on indium gallium nitride to convert electricity into photons with help of direct current (DC) instead of alternating current (AC) There are other types of Lights which on the principle of solid state objects like semi conductor but LED's are the most relevant for general illumination. It consists of a chip of semi-conducting material treated to create an electric circuit. An LED is usually a small area source, often with extra optics added to the chip that shapes its radiation pattern. The specific wavelength or color emitted by the LED depends on the materials used to make the diode. It depends on the composition and condition of the semi conducting material used, and can be infrared, visible, or near-ultraviolet. Red LED’s are based on aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs). Blue LED’s are made from indium gallium nitride (InGaN) and green from aluminum gallium phosphide (AlGaP). "White" light is created by combining the light from red, green, and blue (RGB) LED’s or by coating a blue LED with yellow phosphor. LED based lights are still under development but it is predicted it will radically change the energy consumption patterns of the world over the next few years. As such there’s a phenomenal amount of resources being devoted to improving LED technology worldwide. The U.S. has committed an uncharacteristically large amount of industrial policy support for LED research and development. Asia is a hotbed of cutting-edge manufacturing technology and Europe and Canada have led the way in energy efficient initiatives accompanied by some of some of the most innovative design styles you can find anywhere.
Advantages and disadvantages of LED lightings
They have extremely low power consumption. LED lights use up to 90% less power than normal lights, which has many more advantages than you would ever assume. Firstly electrical running costs are reduced, not only reducing the demand placed on your household energy consumption but feel good knowing you are saving energy and becoming green, the global warming factor. Along the same line, the other major advantage of LED lights is that you can connect multiple sets of LED lights together from only one plug or socket, more sets than non LED lights due to the lower power consumption. This is not only practical resulting in the requirement for less power sockets, but you can lit larger multiple area with little drilling of your walls. Just imagine powering a string of lights ½ mile long from a single electrical socket. With LED’s you can use more light than ever before and still save money. While the small energy draw of LED’s would indicate many more could be strung together, until the UL listing is changed for the standard plug connected light sets, it is prudent to adhere to the current regulations for risk management. Since LED lights don’t contain any energy hungry materials, they are very efficacious-convert energy to light, not heat as non LED’s lights do. These make them intrinsically safe and are generally cool to the touch. LED’s lights can provide with 50,000 hours or more of life, which can tremendously reduce maintenance costs and time. This means, assuming an average twelve hour night, you will not need to change your LED lights after a good eleven year. In comparison, an incandescent light bulb lasts approximately 1,000 hours. Fluorescents are rated for 10,000 hours under ideal conditions. Along with this LED lights are incredibly bright, 3 times brighter than traditional lights, this makes them ideal for a wide range of situations, offering much greater impact and appeal than subdued traditional bulbs. The known problem of replacing blown and the inconvenience and undesired appearance of multiple failed bulbs isn't an issue with LED's. With such a long bulb life you can be sure of a fully functioning set of lights, which can be happily left outside requiring no maintenance and minimal routine care. Further mentioning the longevity of LED lights, LED’s are manufactured as one solid piece, with no glass or filaments to break. As such these lights are resistant to shock and vibration, which makes them more durable than non LED lights. Plus they have better quality light output since they have minimum ultraviolet and infrared radiation. LED lights have much greater design freedom in terms of color flexibility including many “whites” – without the use of filters, fully dimmable, new form factors for fixture designs which give us innumerable options to look for. Lastly the most important benefits if you are environment conscious is LED’s unlike Fluorescent and mercury vapor lighting which contains mercury, a hazardous waste to the environment and must be disposed of properly, LED’s don’t contain mercury and are not considered hazardous waste designating them environmental friendly.
Shopping guide for LED lightings
LED lights have started flooding the market but before purchase see to it what are you looking for. LED lights were initially started to be used in commercial environments like entertainment shows, theaters etc. Also, LED lights are already the best light source for traffic signals, vehicular tail lights, emergency lighting and flashlights. Increasingly nowadays, Home LED lightings such as accent wall LED lights, task, landscape and even outdoor LED lighting such as garden Pole LED lightings have arrived in the market. After deciding upon the type of LED lighting, check the prices around various online shop. Price is a hard thing to remain constant since most companies post retail type prices online and are willing to accept your bargain call for bulk purchases. Your best bet is to have a specific LED lighting type in mind and browse through several LED light shop. Check the kind of warranties the selected shop is giving you in terms of lamp life span and durability of LED lights. The light output declines over time so at some point, though the lamp is technically lit, it is not providing the same effect as intended in the beginning. Market pitching shop owner will seem to claim very high lamp life, while more honest LED shop will opt for the lower numbers. A reasonable lamp life for most LED’s seen in the market is around 50,000 hours but if it is more see what kind of warranties and return policy is in place if the claim is not fulfilled by the seller.
As we can see LED lightings have so many benefits compared to other form of lightings that sooner or later its usage will be common. More widespread use could lead to big energy savings and a revolution in the way we think about lighting. And We at For your Home would be part of these revolution, would you like to join?
You can also read this article in our news and article section at;
http://www.foryourhome.co.uk/led-lightings-lighting-revolution-on-the-way/articles/36.html
About the Author
We at For your Home are specialist in helping you make better homes and gardens. You are always welcome to visit our online store at http://www.foryourhome.co.uk and our Home and outdoor LED lighting section at http://www.foryourhome.co.uk/home-led-lighting/c/373_475.html
