Everything But The Weed

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What is an Light emitting diode?

LED is the common abbreviation for a light-emitting diode. An LED is made up on a diode that makes light when electricity is passed throught it. Light emitting diode lights have been around since the 1960’s where they have been used as on/off and other indicator lights in electronic equipment. It is only recently that Light emitting diode Lights have made the leap enabling it to be used for a far greater range of lighting applications. 

What are the advantages to using Light emitting diode lights?

LEDs has several advantages – high efficiency and durability, much longer lifespans, reduced upkeep . This translates into energy cost savings, maintenance savings and an overall decrease in cost of ownership over the product’s lifetime . 

What’s the difference between performance and efficacy? 

Efficacy is a term normally used in cases where the input and output units differ. In illumination, we are concerned with the amount of light (in lumens) produced by a certain amount of electrical energy (in watts).  
On the other hand, performance is a term that is typically dimensionless. For example, lighting fixture performance is the ratio of the total lumens exiting the fixture to the total lumens initially produced by the light source. 

Do I have to replace LED diodes?

An LED does not burn out like a standard lamp, so individual diodes do not need to be replaced . LED lights produce less light as they age, Light emitting diode lights will lose around 30% of their output over 50,000 hours. If one Light emitting diode fails, it does not require a complete fixture outage. 

Why is the lifespan of an LED measured as lumen depreciation?

The lifetime of an Light emitting diode is vastly longer than that of incandescent, fluorescent or HID lamp sources, generally lasting 50,000 hours or longer. Although the Light emitting diode never really burns out, product lifespan is measured by lumen depreciation. 

How efficient are led bulbs compared to incandescent bulbs?

Most led light bulbs are five to six times as efficient as incandescent bulbs. In other words, they use only 10% to 20% as much electricity to produce the same amount of light . The newest generation of Light emitting diode’s are eight to ten times as efficient as incandescent bulbs. 

What happens when the bulb burns out?

Light emitting diode’s do not burn out like typical light fixtures – they gradually degrade over time. Quality Light emitting diode Lights should retain approximately 70% of their output for their first 50,000 Hours of operation.

What is the difference between Cool White and Warm White?

Warm white is the light colour an incandescent light bulb produces – it is labelled warm as it has a slightly more “yellow” colour whereas cool white is pure white and extremely bright – if you think of a fluorescent tube this light colour will be close to cool white.

What about the High Cost?

The primary limitation is the current high cost of Light emitting diode light bulbs. Even though the cost of Light emitting diode lights  is steadily decreasing, startup cost may seem daunting, but Light emitting diode light bulbs pay for themselves over time since they can last for up to 11 years, and saves a lot of money in terms of electricity used. 

For businesses, using LED lights makes a whole lot of sense since the reduced maintenance costs more than make up for the steep start-up costs.

For more information on LED Downlights, LED Strip light and other LED lights please visit our website