Advantages of LEDs

LEDs are solid-state devices. The advantages are:
1) Durability: There are no moving or fragile parts so that it can last for decades before replacement is needed.
2) Energy Saving: LEDs can be many times more energy efficient than light bulbs, depending on the application.
3) Low Operation Cost: Higher durability and energy efficiency of LEDstranslate into a reduced overall application cost
throughout the lifecycle.
4) Environmentally Friendly: No mercury, no lead and luminaires are made from aluminum which is recyclable.

When compared with traditional lightings, LED lightning enjoys several advantages, including higher energy efficiency, less maintenance needs, reduced environmental impact (no mercury) and significantly longer life expectancy up to 50,000 hours. The outstanding system efficacy of LED lighting as high as 90.7%, calculated by the mathematical multiplication of light source efficacy, power efficiency and luminaire efficiency, can be revealed when it is side-by-side compared with those of traditional lightings in the following table.

An important lighting parameter that users of LED general illumination should be aware of is “color rendering index” (CRI). Ranging between 0 and 100, CRI characterizes the ability of a light source to make colors look true and natural. The closer a light source gets to 100 on CRI, the more natural colors are rendered. LEDs with CRI below 75 are not recommended for indoor lighting. At the present time, LEDs with CRI higher than 92 is available in the market.

LED Applications

1) Early commercial applications of LEDs are light indicators for expensive laboratory apparatus in the 1970’s.
2) Later, as LEDs became more affordable, similar indicator applications were widely found in consumer products like TVs, radios and telephones.
3) The application LEDs also expanded into specialty lighting, e.g. highway traffic lights, pedestrian crosswalk signals and automobile tail and direction indicator lights.

However, the true potential of LEDs is not fully unveiled until the advent of blue LED. In combination with phosphor in the packaging, blue LEDs can create white light. Early attempts to apply LEDs in general illumination were not successful because they didn't meet the lumen-per-watt or color requirements. In recent years, however, technology advancement in high-brightness blue LEDs has made LED application in general lighting become viable.

4) Nowadays LED luminaires can be found in general lighting applications such as retail spaces, office buildings, residential areas and street lights.

Recently Forecast for LED Lighting Application as the Following:

1) Strategies Unlimited: LED lighting market compound average growth rate is 39%, 2009 – 2013, US 667 million to 3,200 million for total global market.
2) Topology Research: LED Penetration of Street Lighting Will Grow from 1.3% in 2009 to 4.0% in 2011, 2.5 Million Units to 8.5 Million Units Respectively.
3) Morgan Stanley: 50% Street Lighting Adopt to LED in 2015
4) Philips: 50% Global Lighting Value will be LED in 2015