LED Light Bulbs - The Saviour of Energy Efficient Lighting or Another Waste of Your Money? I have become cynical subsequently of any new inventions for saving my corner of the world from eternal hydro dam power generation threats being built on my back yard.
Imagine my surprise when LED light bulbs began appearing on our new 'Next generation to save the planet' articles. Apparently they were better colour, even more efficient, lasted for over 35,000 hours (or close to 15 years of normal household use) and they were dimmable to boot. Well I, of course, was much the wiser for my previous experiences.
So how does it all look after my research? Actually, things are looking much better than I expected. It seems there is a plethora of cheaper LED light bulbs available that were going down the same track as their compact fluorescent counterparts. They promised much but delivered quite a bit less. The trick for me was to look to the established brands of Philips, Osram, Sylvania, GE and the like. These companies are spending, literally, millions of dollars on research in coming up with solutions, mainly relating to heat management of the LED but also with something called 'Binning'.
Let's look first at the heat management. LED's are generally perceived as almost heat free and to be fair, the LED's we found on our old stereo consoles and on the front of the TV sets are generally very small and not designed to give off useable light. They are purely indicators to let us know that some thing is plugged in or operating and mostly limited to Red or Green in colour. The LED's that are required in a light bulb are a whole new generation and are far more powerful and actually produce quite a bit of heat. So to manage the heat is critical as if that doesn't happen, the LED will very quickly fade and the life will be shortened dramatically. What LED does do, like it's compact fluorescent counterparts, is produce a much better conversion of energy in to light than the incandescant lamps we currently purchase. Less Heat (relatively speaking) for more light. To achieve the ability to maximise the light output as well as the life, a series of heat sinks (or aluminium fins) that dissipate the heat effectively enough around the LED were developed. This will certainly change that appearance of the bulb but it is critical for good function. But up until now the lamps have been consequently low in wattage and in output. However the newer high powered lamps such as the low voltage LED replacements to the dichroic (MR16) lamps actually have a fan built in! This is all part of the research and development required to assure me, the customer, that the details shown on the packaging are accurate. Now I hasten to add that this advice applies to the major brands and not necessarily the cheaper products that are mass produced in some less favourable companies in other parts of the world.
The second issue is 'binning'. I won't go in to the technical aspects but it all applies to the manufacturing process of LED, which is an electronic component, like a diode, resistor or capacitor and not a traditional lighting company product.
TV Lamps For Less,
TV Lamps For Less,
Television Lamps For Less