Benefits Of Using LED Lighting
An LED lamp uses light-emitting diodes instead of electrical filaments or gas as the source for illumination. The lamps normally consist of clusters of LEDs within a suitable housing and come in many different shapes, sizes and cap types that can fit directly into the lamp holders of the lamps they are replacing.
LEDs were first available in the 60s but were not used all that much. By the time the 70s came around however, they were being used in number of appliances, but not as general lighting because their output was so low. However they were used as indicators of one kind or another quite often.
Initially, they only came in coloured varieties ” red, orange, yellow, green and blue ” and it was not until 1993 that a white light was produced combining the various coloured LEDs.
Older light bulbs like the ones still used in homes around the world have a very short life compared to LED lamps, and run on a much higher wattage, making LED lamps more cost effective in an energy efficiency sense, in terms of lifespan, and durability as there’s no filament or tube to break.
LEDs do not contain any dangerous gases like mercury or halogen and are fully dimmable so they hold yet more advantages over their more conventional predecessors.
However, currently there are some disadvantages. The way in which white LEDs are manufactured is not yet mature enough for them to be made at a low enough price for mass production and general use. There are several production barriers that need to be overcome first and several processes that need to be improved, like depositing the active semiconductor layers. If this process can be improved it would vastly increase the overall output of LED manufacturing.
Another drawback to LEDs that would be more noticeable by the user is the colour rendering index or CRI of LEDs. CRI is a measurement of how clean and white a light source is when compared with sunlight (which obviously has the top CRI of 100.) As it stands most affordable LEDs will have a CRI of around 70, which is far too low to provide quality indoor light. There are LEDs available with higher CRI but they aren’t available for the sort of price that everyone in the country will want to pay for light bulbs, so they are most likely not going to replace traditional bulbs just yet.