The future of household lighting will soon be the wide spread adoption and use of white LED light bulbs. Though the present market for finished white LED products is geared mainly towards enthusiasts and early-adopters, the efficiency and cost effectiveness of LED lighting systems will drive demand for more affordable LED lights. Opto-electronics is an exciting area and we predict, that in the near future, white LED lighting applications will be powerful and cheap enough to replace incandescent lighting for everyday use in our homes, in street lights, outdoor signs, and offices.

Advantages of LED Lights

The operational life of current white LED lamps is 100,000 hours. This is 11 years of continuous operation, or 22 years of 50% operation. The long operational life of an led lamp is a stark contrast to the average life of an incandescent bulb, which is approximately 5000 hours. If the lighting device needs to be embedded into a very inaccessible place, using LEDs would virtually eliminate the need for routine bulb replacement.

There is no comparison between the cost of LED lights vs. traditional incandescent options. With incandescent bulbs, the true cost of the bulb is the cost of replacement bulbs and the labor expense and time needed to replace them. These are significant factors, especially where there are a large number of installed bulbs. For office buildings and skyscrapers, maintenance costs to replace bulbs can be enormous. These issues can all be virtually eliminated with the LED option.

The key strength of LED lighting systems is in their low power consumption and durability. On average led based lighting systems will use 10%-20% of the power consumption of their incandescent counterparts. This translates into an average electrical cost saving of 80%-90% as peoples and companies convert to led lighting.

Realistically, the cost savings would be higher as most incandescent light bulbs blow out within a year and require replacements whereas LED light bulbs will last for a decade without replacements. Over the long haul, led based lighting systems are more cost effective simply because of its low power consumption and long life (50,000-100,000 hours).

We will soon be offering a new low voltage (2.0V-3.6V) led light bulb which contains 50 leds. The new led light will yield an average luminous intensity of 240-450 candelas. The greatest advantage of the new low voltage led light will be its intense light output and flexibility of power supplies, from batteries (AA cells) to solar panels to simple low-cost AC to DC transformers. The low voltage lights are designed to be a stand alone led light source or an array of hundreds of led lights.

To inquiry about the new low voltage led light please go to http://www.lc-led.com/Catalog/department/38/category/55 or email us at sales@lcled.com

The main limitation to the adoption of white LED lighting as a lighting standard is the current high cost of led bulbs. Although the cost keeps going down, LED light bulbs are still expensive. A single AC bulb (17 LED), replacing a 25 watt incandescent, will cost about $40. Although LED's are expensive, the cost is recouped over time and in energy cost savings. Factor in that it is significantly cheaper to maintain led lights, the best value comes from commercial use where maintenance and replacement costs are expensive. Traffic lights and outdoor signs, for example, are being switched over to LED's in many cities. Smaller arrays, such as those in flashlights, headlamps and small task lights are great for specialty and outdoor use. LED based automotive headlights are current being used in high end luxury cars.

It will be interesting to see what developments are coming for more residential applications of LED lights. LED lighting technology has been researched and developed for the past two decades and we are beginning to see practical applications from this work. There is already wide spread use of LED traffic signs and LED headlights where a premium is placed on a reliable light source that is cheaper and less labor intensive to maintain. We in the industry are certain that tomorrows LED lights will last longer and consume even less power than todays energy efficient bulbs. LED lighting will be used to replace virtually every type of light, bulb, and lamp that is currently in use.

For more information about LED light products and there uses, please visit us at Light Components LED Corp.