By The development of LEDs started in early 1960s. However they were low powered and very less bright. In 1994 the first high powered and bright LED came into existence. In May 2008 these bulbs were officially announced by EISA legislation.
LED Bulbs are getting really popular these days due to their power and efficiency. LED, which is fully known as Light Emitting Diode, is a very powerful product which is assembled into lamps for lighting purposes. These Bulbs have many benefits due to which people prefer it over traditional incandescent lamps. The benefits and advantages are mentioned as follows;
These bulbs have a longer life span, they are much brighter, powerful and electrically efficient than the traditional lamps. The idea of their brightness can be realized from the fact that some LEDs emit more than 100 Lumens per watt. The longer life span reduces maintenance costs, the need to replace fused bulbs and all that work. This makes them more efficient
Secondly these bulbs are unique in such a way that unlike the compact fluorescent lamps, they come to their full brightness without a warm up time. These bulbs do not get hot even after long time of switching them on and they do not emit heat in the form of Infrared Radiation so this also helps in placing them conveniently anywhere unlike the conventional sources which were harmful for the food materials placed nearby them. However these bulbs produce heat at semi conductor junction but this heat is regulated by the bulbs themselves as they have heat sinks. Another way in which these bulbs are advantageous over fluorescent lamps is that their life time isn’t affected by frequent switching on and off. They switch on rapidly and this makes them useful for particular applications such as in brake lights of an automobile. However it must be noted that the performance is affected sometimes by the packaging material and degradation of some components over time.
The bulbs have an innovative design of packaging. The cover displays almost each and every feature of the specific bulb so you can buy the most suitable bulb just by looking at the cover. The packaging may show the power consumption, output in lumen, the color temperature in Kelvin etc.
Most of the lamps are directional and this affects the design of lamps. However it is not a big problem now since Omni directional lamps are becoming handier now which spread light 360°. In fact a single LED has a brighter output than that of a compact fluorescent lamp.
These lamps are negatively affected by higher temperatures so they come with pre installed heat sinks and cooling fins. They require controlled direct current. However an appropriate circuit can easily convert the alternating current into direct current. The initial cost of LED Bulbs is higher, but it is compensated by their long lifetime, lower energy consumption and negligible maintenance costs.
