Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) | LED vs. CFL | Advantages of LEDs over CFLs & incandescent lamps

Very few people around the world would have known the Professor trio, namely, Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura till their names flashed across the media for being named as winners of the 2014 Nobel Prize for physics. The trio have been announced as winners for the invention of blue color Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in the early 1990s, which was a challenge for everyone till then so as to produce white light along with other two primary color (red and green) LEDs.

Today, the LEDs form the basis of numerous electronic devices ranging from household lighting solutions, to televisions, to mobile phones, to watches, and what not! Their proven record of energy efficiency is what make the Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) superior to the older generation lighting sources like the incandescent and fluorescent bulbs/ filaments.

After the conventional lamps became redundant due to their high energy consumption, the invention and commercial use of the Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) were in vogue as they consumed lesser energy than their predecessors. However, the CFLs were also consuming relatively higher energy and had the element 'mercury' in them which has deleterious effects on human health if not disposed off properly once the lamps become faulty. The LEDs overcame both these problems, and therefore, are considered as one of the best lighting devices/ sources till date.

With advent of time and further improvements in technology, the LEDs come in variety of types depending upon their respective designs and use. They come as holder lamps, indicator lights, LED lenses, LED holders, LED modules, power supplies, etc. Other common high power LEDs prevalent in the American markets have been Chicago Miniature lamps, VCC Chicago Miniature, LED strip lighting, CML-IT LEDs, mr16 LED, a19 LED, etc.

It is stated as a matter of fact that the LED lights have the potential to help more than 1.5 billion people around the world who do not have access to electricity grids - because they are efficient enough to even run on locally generated solar power as well. People around the world are being encouraged to replace their old lamps with the new generation LEDs as it is being stated that the LEDs last up to 100,000 hours, compared to 1,000 for incandescent bulbs and 10,000 hours for fluorescent lights.

A few salient advantages of LEDs being:

• LEDs convert most of the input electricity into light, thereby generating low waste ambient temperatures
• LEDs do not contain mercury, and therefore relatively better for the environment
• Unlike the incandescent and fluorescent lamps, LEDs are available in multi colors
• LEDs last for almost 6 times more than the CFLs, and about 50 times more than the incandescent bulbs
• Due to their multiple colors, dimming properties and compact size, the LEDs find ready acceptance in the interior designs and combinations

About Unknown

This is a short description in the author block about the author. You edit it by entering text in the "Biographical Info" field in the user admin panel.