Led Bulbs, the next step in lighting
February 17, 2007 § 4 Comments
Incandescent light bulbs have a relatively poor luminous efficacy and therefore are gradually being replaced in many applications by different lighting technologies like fluorescent lights, high-intensity discharge lamps, LEDs, and other devices. The thing that caught my attention to LED bulbs is their efficiency and long life, that makes them very attractive despite their high costs. LED (light-emitting diode) is a semiconductor device that emits incoherent narrow-spectrum light when electrically biased in the forward direction. This effect is a form of electroluminescence(source).
This 150 LEDs in this light bulb use 9W of electricity power , costs about 65$ and emits as much light as an incandescent light bulb of 70W power. People debateon the comparison between LED bulbs and fluorescent lights especially on the quantity of light they offer. This is new tech and prices drop as performance is improved and my opinion is that LEDs win hands down only considering their life of 30000 to 50000 hours comparing to 8000 hours of fluorescent lamps. One could say that the four times longer life of LED bulbs than fluorescent lights isn’t worth it the more than ten times the price but there are other issues also. It’s known that compact fluorescents are made with mercury and all fluorescent lights are said to be emitting harmful radiation that can endanger one’s health. I didn’t calculate anything but if the LED bulb consumes 2-3W of energy less than the fluorescent lamp when you think of the extra 20-40000 hours of life it probably gets you cheaper with LEDs overall.
And, like someone on the engadget.com forum said, “But even if you are not saving your wallet, you are saving the planet… and that’s cool, isn’t it?”