A Quick Introduction To LED Lights
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The use of small LED lights for control panels, indicators and in personal torches and Christmas lights has become commonplace in recent years. Yet behind the scenes, LED technology has been taking huge strides forwards and we are now at a point where LED lighting is poised to become an extremely cost-effective replacement for many forms of general lighting.
The cost of manufacturing white LED lamps has fallen dramatically and the luminosity has improved in a similar dramatic fashion. The outcome is that LED lamps being developed today are able to take over many general lighting applications.
Of particular note is the extremely low power consumption of LED lights, which when coupled with their extremely long life means that the running costs can be massively reduced (a tenfold reduction in electricity bills is typical). Also, unlike the main existing energy saving alternative, namely the CFL (Compact Fluorescent Tube), LED lights do not contain dangerous mercury vapour or suffer from slow start-up and a poor light quality.
It’s not all roses and sunshine though; LED light might be extremely bright but it also typically highly directional. This means that while a regular incandescent light bulb will emit light (and considerable amounts of heat) uniformly, an LED will create a narrow, focussed beam that casts a narrow light pool.
This inherent feature is if course precisely what designers of spotlights attempt to achieve using reflective surfaces to aim the light at a single spot. LED spotlights ironically have to be made to actually widen their beam angle in order to approximate what we have grown used to, and it is thus common to find groups of individual LED modules contained in a single LED spotlight.
Presently, the most common use for LED light bulbs in a domestic setting is replacing MR16 and GU10 base halogen lamps. Halogen lighting costs easily ten times more to run than LED equivalents since a 4W MR16 LED bulb is capable of delivering the same level of light as a 35w halogen.
LED spot lights can also be made to mimic the exact shape and size of the lamps they are to replace since the components themselves are quite tiny. They won’t wear out at anything close to the same rate as most halogen lamps do, won’t waste industrial quantities of heat and certainly won’t cost even a fraction as much to operate.
There are a few points to be aware of though when replacing halogen lamps with LED light bulbs. First is that they often cannot be dimmed without installing special transformers and dimmers designed specifically for use with LED fittings. Second is to understand “light temperature”. Light bulbs described as warm white will appear most similar to traditional lighting with a yellowish appearance. As the temperature gets cooler, so the light looks increasingly more bluish.
Lastly, at present it is common for LED manufacturers to overstate the power and beam spread of their products. As easy way to adjust for this is to increase the number of LED light bulbs which of course spreads the light more evenly and increase the general level of light.
If you enjoyed this article then be sure to find out more about | href=”http://www.kulekat.com/led-home-lighting”>home LED light bulbs in general and | href=”http://www.kulekat.com/led-home-lighting/replacing-12v-halogen-lamps.html”>3w MR16 LED bulbs in particular.
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