TechTheDay

You may have had numerous encounters with LED lighting products at the mall being touted as “energy saving lights” or efficient lighting products. In many cases, lighting products that make use of light emitting (LED) diode technology are labeled as “energy saving” or environmentally friendly. They may even include the lines “50% power savings” or something similar like “1 LED light = 10 standard bulbs.”

Are these claims correct? Do they provide real benefits? The following are some of the most important details you need to know about LED lighting technology.

1. Recently available quality LED lights are already more efficient than CFLs.

In previous years, it was deemed not yet practical to switch to LED lights mainly because of the efficiency factor. CFLs back then were considerably more efficient than LEDs. However, a study conducted by the United States Department of Energy in 2013 revealed how much LED technology has progressed.

According to the report entitled “Life-Cycle Assessment of Energy and Environmental Impacts of LED Lighting,” LED lighting efficiency already equals that of CFL. At around 3,900 MJ per 20 million lumen-hours, it has been shown that LED lighting is now comparable in overall efficiency to compact fluorescent lamps. A 12.5 watt LED lamp can produce 800 Lumens of light. A 15 watt CFL, on the other hand, is capable of providing 900 Lumens. Hence, an average high quality LED lamp delivers around 64 Lumens per watt while a CFL produces 60 Lumens.

2. LED lights last longer than CFLs.

Longevity has always been one of the major attributes that make LED lighting great. In the same US Department of Energy study, it was found that three 15-watt CFLs will be needed to match one 12.5-watt LED lamp in producing 20 million Lumen-hours of light. This is based on the 8,500-hour expected useful life of CFLs and the 25,000-hour useful life of LED lights. That’s 3 CFLs against 1 LED lamp. Cost effectiveness is obviously on the CFL’s side based on the government-initiated study mentioned above.

However, it is important to remember than LED lights dim over time. As such, they will not exactly deliver the estimated 20 million Lumen hours stated in the study. The older an LED module gets, the dimmer its light becomes. So far there have been no conclusive study on the decrease of the light output of commercially available LED lights but it is safe to say that they are unlikely to shine as bright in their last couple of years of useful life.

3. LED lights are not bulbs.

Hence they are very durable. Unlike incandescent bulbs that easily break, LED lights are quite durable. You can even drop them and they will not easily break. They are also better in terms of durability compared to CFLs. This is because LED modules are solid state devices. In most LED “bulbs” sold in the market, glass is hardly used. Most LED lamps are made of plastic parts. This does not mean, however, that you can just freely drop them, thinking that they won’t break. They will still break or have cracks but they are unlikely to shatter and cause glass shard injuries.

4. You need to get the top shelf LED lights if you want to get the best efficiency.

If you are planning to get an LED lighting product, be sure to get a high quality one if you want to get the efficiency mentioned in the US Department of Energy research. Only high quality LED lighting products are efficient. Don’t expect efficiency from the LED lights available at thrift stores or from those manufactured by run-of-the-mill companies from Asia.

Moreover, it is very important to to make sure that the LED lights you get are guaranteed to be safe. The LED lighting system is not the same as incandescent bulbs and CFLs. They have components that regulate the conversion of AC power into DC to become suitable for LED use. If these components are of inferior quality, they can lead to fire or the quick “busting” of the LED light.

5.  You might need some time getting used to LED lighting.

While years of effort to make LED lights closer to the more pleasant light color and temperature of most CFLs, the subtly bluish tint in white LEDs can still be a problem for some users. You can notice LED lights appearing “too white” because these lights are actually already on the blue spectrum or nearing the wavelength of the blue color the human eyes perceive. Too much blue means a “cooler” light and is deemed uncomfortable for many. Bluish light coming from LEDs is even considered as one of the major contributors to light pollution according to the International Dark-Sky Association.

It is predicted that by 2020, according to the US Department of Energy study, the efficiency of LED lights will have already doubled that of CFL’s. LED light is hence a very good energy-saving option when it comes to home or office lighting.

In an earlier blog post, we mentioned about campaigning for the more widespread use of CFLs as a more meaningful tech-based way of celebrating Earth Hour, We may have to change CFL to LED lighting or at least include LED as one of the options to save power on lights instead of turning off lights to show a conscious effort in saving the earth.