What does LED stand for?
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode.
Is a LED a bulb?
LEDs do appear to be bulbs but in fact are not. LED's are tiny semiconductors encapsulated in plastic, which protect their components and help focus the light.
What is the difference between an incandescent bulb and an LED?
Incandescent create light by use of a filament. When power is applied, the filament glows, generating heat, in turn, producing light. LEDs are the opposite. LEDs create light though a "cold process", when power is applied to semiconductors (usually gallium, arsenic and phosphorus) they're stimulated by the movement of electrons; thus creating photons, the light that is visibly seen by humans.
Do LEDs have a wire filament?
No, LEDs operate using entirely different components. LEDs are diodes; they only allow power to move in one direction. The anode (+) is where the current comes in and the cathode (-) is where the current goes out, much like the positive and negative terminals of a battery. Incandescent bulbs project light in every direction (omni directional) where LEDs due to their package design and layout, project light in specified directions such as 20, 50 or 120 degrees.
Why do LEDs use such little power?
LEDs do not use a filament where a conductor is heated and light is created. Filament based lighting consumes more power than the light produced. LEDs produce very little amounts of heat and do not use filaments making them far more efficient in consumption and output.
Do LEDs produce heat?
LEDs produce very little amounts of heat; the heat noticed in some instances is due to on board components and other factors of the circuit. In comparison to incandescent, LEDs produce a fraction of the heat. If LEDs are hot to the touch, they are being overpowered due to improper circuitry.
Are LEDs affected by extreme conditions?
LEDs are geared for harsh environments. LEDs function from -40 F to 180 F; there is no delay or required "warm-up" time for LEDs to function.
How long do LEDs last?
LEDs are rated by manufacturers to operate under normal conditions for approximately 10 years or 100,000 hours of continuous use. As LEDs get older, they tend to dim and fade but aren't susceptible to blinking like incandescent or fluorescents.
LEDs are more expensive than other lighting options, why?
LEDs can operate as stand alone devices, but when grouped or clustered they require additional steps to operate properly. LEDs need proper components such as a circuit board, driving components and some cases, housings; to endure the elements. LED circuits can be designed rapidly yes, but to ensure that they will operate correctly and for long periods of time they require testing.
How does the brightness of LED lighting compare to incandescent lighting?
LED light bulbs are much brighter than incandescent or halogen bulbs of the same wattage, but LED bulbs are not available in high wattages. Thus, when replacing incandescent or halogen lamps with LED lamps, more LED lamps are often needed. For example, to replace one 65-watt incandescent floodlight you may need two 6-watt or 7-watt LED floodlights. Although you have more bulbs you are still using 80% less electricity.
Incandescent bulbs use about five times as much power to produce the same amount of light as LED bulbs. At low power levels the difference is larger. At higher power the difference is somewhat smaller. Electrical power is measured in watts. For example, a LED bulb consuming 3 watts might output light comparable to a 20-watt incandescent bulb, and a 6-watt LED bulb might be comparable to 30-watt incandescent bulb. Our brightest LED flood lamps use 11 to 12 watts and output light comparable to a 50-watt incandescent.
Which LED bulb is comparable to a standard 60 watt light bulb?
Unfortunately, there are no LED bulbs that can match the light output of a regular 60 watt incandescent bulb at this time. Because the incandescent bulbs are not-directional lighting, the LED bulbs are directional flood lights and spotlights.
What is the Beam Spread?
The beam angle is the angle across the cone of light from one beam edge to the opposite beam edge. The beam edge is the cone-shaped surface where the beam intensity is 50% of what it is at the center of the beam. (50% is somewhat arbitrary, but seems to be the most commonly used figure.) A flood light has a beam spread of around 22 degrees or more. A spot has a beam spread of less than 21 degrees. (21° is also arbitrary, but commonly used as the dividing point between floods and spots.) If you compare a flood and spot with the same light elements (and lumen output,) the flood has a lower “brightness,” as defined by Center Beam Candle Power (luminance) because the bulb is spreading the light over a larger cone. That may not seem entirely fair to the flood light, but research has linked human perception of “brightness” with luminance, so using CBCP is valid. And converting CBCP to Watt-equivalents using a constant ratio is also valid for our purposes. It is interesting to note that when we sell a flood and spot with the same light elements and prices, the floods out-sell the spots, but the spots “look” brighter. This suggests that people care about the beam spread at least as much as the overall perception of brightness.
What is the difference between a floodlight and a spotlight?
Led spotlights output a narrower beam of light, typically less than 30 degrees wide. Most of the light from a spotlight is concentrated onto a relatively small area producing a bright spot. Led floodlights output a wider beam of light, up to 160 degrees, so the light from a floodlight is spread out over a much larger area.
Because the light is more concentrated, a spotlight will appear brighter than a floodlight but only within its narrower beam. A spotlight is more suited to illuminating objects and a floodlight is more suited to illuminating areas.
What do "cool white" and "warm white" mean?
The Color Correlated Temperature (CCT) is given in the description of each of our white LED bulbs. The color (CCT) of our white bulbs ranges from a warm yellow (2700K) to a cool blue white (7000K).
By comparison, a typical incandescent bulb has a CCT of 2800K. A typical halogen is a bit higher, maybe 3500K. Daylight white is 4500K and a cool white fluorescent is 6000K or more.
The human eye adapts to background light so that even a daylight white bulb will look slightly blue in a room illuminated mainly with incandescent bulbs. Similarly, an incandescent bulb will look very yellow in midday sunlight.
