Engineering LED Lights into Homes
Better and brighter. That’s what engineering LED lights into homes leads to. For the longest time, we relied on inefficient and non-environmentally friendly incandescent and fluorescent bulbs to light our homes and businesses. Gradually, LED lighting has made a headway into replacing conventional lighting, especially in the past few years. Now engineering LED lights into homes and businesses is becoming more common with more and more homes switching from their current lighting scheme to engineering them from the ground up. Fluorescent lighting, once thought to be more efficient and brighter, is on its way out as well.
What makes engineering LED lights into homes and businesses better than conventional setups?
First we need to know how LED lights work. LED is short for light emitting diode. A LED is a semiconductor component in electronics that emits light when an electric current flows through it. It takes advantage of a phenomenon called electroluminescence. The color of the light depends on the energy it takes to close a gap in the semiconductor as well as any light-emitting chemical coating used.
Early LEDs were mainly used in remote control devices and as indicator lights for electronics. They were limited to a weak red color, which later led to infra-red technology. Other early uses for LEDs were seven-segment displays for electronics like watches, calculators and scoreboards. LEDs of the past couldn’t be used for illumination because they weren’t bright enough. Years down the line, technological improvements have made LEDs much brighter. Now, LEDs can be any color and brightness and enough lighting for outdoors.
What makes LEDs better and brighter?
The most notable advantage is that LEDs consume less power than ordinary bulbs. This makes engineering LED lights into homes and businesses cheaper and more efficient in terms of power consumption. This efficiency greatly contributes to the environment. A six-watt LED bulb is equivalent to a 40-watt incandescent bulb making LED bulbs a good alternative.
Another great advantage is that LEDs last longer than ordinary light bulbs as they don’t tend to fail after frequent on-off cycling. LEDs do fail after a while, but not as much as ordinary bulbs. They last up to 35,000 hours on average compared to incandescent bulbs that last up to 2,000 hours. LEDs also don’t require a long warm-up time which means they reach peak brightness faster. Also, because of their solid-state construction, they’re not as fragile as ordinary light bulbs which easily break from external shock.
One disadvantage of engineering LED lights into homes and businesses is the cost. LED lighting along with the required wiring and components still cost more than conventional lighting fixtures. Cost is projected to become significantly lower through currently increasing demand. LED bulbs installed in conventional wiring are also in danger of early failure. Spikes in the current can compromise their lifetime. This is why it’s better to engineer LED lights into homes and businesses from the ground up. Home and business owners should not worry about current costs, but should rather treat LED lighting as a long-term investment. Future electrical savings highly outweigh any disadvantages.