LED lighting is the light source which uses LED lights. It is used as an alternative to traditional lighting. LED or Light Emitting Diode, as the name indicates, makes use of a diode to produce light energy from electric energy. LED lighting has become more popular in the recent years because of its high energy efficiency compared to traditional lighting.
History
The concept of LED was found by H.J.Round in 1907 and in 1927 a Russian scientist named Oleg Vladimirovich Losev, created the first LED. Later even for decades LED was not used as a source of light. Later in 1962, Nick Holonyak Jr of General Electric Company developed the first practical LED. In late 1960s LED lighting became very popular and commercial.
Applications
LED lights are very commonly used in many digital and electronic devices like televisions, calculators, remote controls, and watches. They work as indicators in many of these devices to specify the on/off status. In watches and remote controls, LED lighting is used to display the numbers. In computers, LED displays are used to indicate any abnormalities or errors.
Another major area where LED lighting is used is in decorative lightings. During Christmas, you could surely locate them in different colors wherever there are cribs and Christmas trees. It becomes very attractive in disco bars and other party foyers as illumination.LED lights are used in reading lamps, night lights etc where thin lighting is required. They are also common in airports, railway stations and bus terminals as destination message displays and in traffic signals as one color light.
Advantages
There are many advantages for LED lights over traditional lights and CFL. The major advantage is energy efficiency. It is estimated that in a normal incandescent bulb, 80% of the electrical energy is converted as heat energy and only remaining 20% is converted into effective light energy. In case of an LED bulb, it is just the reverse, which means that 80% is completely utilized to produce light. This means the power consumed to produce the same unit of light in traditional light is much more compared to LED light. In other words, LED lights consume less power and are very energy efficient. Another advantage related to this is that they are relatively cool as they produce less heat compared to traditional lights.
Another significant reason for the popularity of LED is its long life. LED lights are found to be 50 to 100 times more lasting than normal lights. Also there is no filament in LED lights as in traditional lights. So there is no chance of unexpected damage by burning out the filament because of shock or vibrations. They are also encased in plastic rather than glass. Thus they are more durable. Moreover, there is no size constraint for LED lights. They are available in very small sizes, thus can be used in modern electronic devices where normal bulbs cannot fit in. They can be made in any color as required without any filter as in the case of traditional lights.
They are very environment friendly as they do not produce carbon or UV rays and they are non-toxic because there is no mercury. Also they can be switched on and off instantaneously. Their brightness can be adjusted making them comfortable for the eyes.
Before going for LED lighting you need to consider all the above mentioned advantages over traditional lighting. Though there could be some minor disadvantages, if you prefer a cost effective lighting system, then LED is definitely the best choice. Choose LED wherever possible and enjoy the best of it.