Why LED Lighting?

Born in research labs more than fifty years ago, LEDs (light emitting diodes) have progressed steadily and rapidly to challenge conventional lighting technologies. LEDs are energy efficient, color controllable, dimmable and focused. Impressive gains in efficiency have transformed LEDs into light sources suitable for applications from the smallest scale to the largest.

Environmentally Friendly

Unlike incandescent, halogen, metal halide, sodium vapor, induction, or fluorescent lights, LED lamps generate extremely low waste heat. Unlike fluorescent or other light sources, LED lamps do not contain toxic materials like mercury, lead, cadmium, or other toxic metals and they comply with the highest standards of environmental protection, such as RoHS. Because an LED is a directional light it is Dark Sky compatible and solves the light pollution and light trespass problems of conventional sources. They do not require special disposal handling like fluorescents, and their extremely long life reduces the impact on our public landfills.

Energy Savings

In conventional cities, lighting accounts for 25% of residential energy use and nearly 15% of commercial building energy use. Cool-running LED lighting can save up to 75% of the energy directly used by existing lighting systems and save even more energy, because heat produced by conventional lighting increases cooling system usage. LEDs are vastly more efficient with 80% electrical energy converted to light while incandescents lose 80% electrical energy in the form of heat.

Quality

When light quality matters, LEDs are the best option. LEDs are solid state devices which make them very durable, with no glass or filaments to break. They are shock and vibration resistant due to their aluminum housing. LEDs can emit light in virtually any desired color without additional color filters as can be programmed to produce an unlimited number of color pattern sequences. LEDs produce no ultra-violet (UV) light which is ideal for sensitive or delicately illuminated objects.

Unlike fluorescent lamps, LEDs can be fully dimmable even at very low power consumption like 2W Candelabras. LEDs can operate in extreme climate and temperature conditions ranging from -40° to 180° without the issues involved with fluorescent technology.

LEDs produce a minimal amount of heat which allows them to be applied to a wide variety of fixture setups & designs as well as minimizing the heat radiated onto objects and people within the vicinity of the light source.

LEDs can be designed to project light at specific angles and directions unlike incandescent bulbs which radiate in all directions without the use of reflectors. LEDs have no delay or warm up time when switching on unlike fluorescent lamps which need time to achieve their color temperature.

In summary, energy savings, long life, and low maintenance make LED lighting economically competitive. Like all semiconductor products, LEDs are on a relentless curve to increase performance at a lower cost. The relative advantages of LEDs over other technologies will continue to increase over time.