LED Frequently Asked Questions

LED light sources used in a residential application.

LED technology continues to develop rapidly as a general light source. As more LED lighting  products are introduced on the market, what do retailers, energy efficiency advocates, and consumers need to know to make informed buying decisions?

Are LEDs ready for general lighting?

The number of white-light LED products available on the market continues to grow, including a wide range of replacement lamps, as well as integrated light fixtures, such as portable desk/task lights, under-cabinet lights, recessed downlights, track heads, and outdoor fixtures for treet and area lighting. Some of these products perform very well, but the quality and energy efficiency of LED products still varies widely, for several reasons:

Why Solid-State Lighting? Led & Oled

Starting with 2003, the U.S. Department of Energy has invested with industry partners in research and development of solid-state lighting (SSL)—including both light-emitting diode (LED) and organic light emitting diode (OLED) technologies. Recently there was a competition, called the "L-Prize," where the U.S. government is offering a $10 million prize, to the company that builds the most efficient bulb with the most pleasing light. Why such concentrated attention on SSL?

The Changing Shape of Light by Jim Axelrod, CBS News

Recently I saw this wonderful video about the need of incadescent bulbs replacement and the entry on the market of new led light bulbs. Check this video made by CBS News.

OLED Lighting- Arising Brightness

Many developed cities are now very famous only with LED lightings compared with Neon lamps & other lights. The LED light gives a glowing look & beautifies the banners.In the electronic country like China, the glowing LED lamps catches the eye with its royal look throught the street. The Organic Light Emitting Diodes abbreviated as OLED's are thought about to be the future trends. Lots of coutries had slowly began to move to LED & OLED lights.

Slower market growth affects Osram IPO, hurts public companies

The general market slowdown in lighting is affecting companies in all parts of the supply chain, delaying Siemens intended preliminary public offering of Osram, while public companies have taken a hit in the stock market.
 
The same market dynamics that have caused a delay in the preliminary public offering (IPO) of Osram by Siemens are affecting the global LED & lighting industry.

LG to Invest $6.83 Billion in Green Business by 2015

LG announced it will invest $6.83 billion in green business sectors by 2015.

The conglomerate says the investments - in electric vehicle batteries, LED lighting, solar PV and water treatment technologies - will generate $8.4 billion in revenue, while creating 10,000 green jobs around the world. It will also boost business for about 660 small and midsized enterprises in its supply chain.

The Ultra-Slim Energy-Saving 12W FZLED Downlights with Light Guide Technology

FZLED, the leading maker of LED lighting products, today launched a new range of 12-Watt LED downlights featuring cutting-edge light guide technology. The energy-efficient, low-maintenance FZL-DL06-00 series is a simple money-saving replacement for any older 6-inch diameter downlight.

The innovative FZL-DL06-00 series introduces light guides to direct part of the LED light output to the sides. This creates a far more pleasant, balanced and gentle illumination than competing downlights, but without compromising coverage or brightness.

Samsung Launches New 10W Light Bulb with 3000K and 550lm

In regard to the replacement for 40W incandescent light bulbs, consumers can select from not only four.4W LED light bulbs but also 10W LED light bulb manufactured by Samsung. Samsungs 10W LED light bulb with E27 socket can adequately replace 40W incandescent light bulbs, but falls short compared to the luminosity of 60W incandescent light bulbs.

This new product, named Samsung LED A19, can accomplish a 75% energy conversion rate with a lifespan of 30 thousand hours, a beam angle of 180 degree, a 550lm luminous flux and a 3000K color temperature (warm white light).

LED Library - Lighting Terms, Luminous Efficacy & Luminaire Efficiency

Lighting Terms

- Luminous flux - unit : lumen(lm)
Luminous flux or luminous power is the measure of the perceived power of light. It differs from radiant flux, the measure of the total power of light emitted, in that luminous flux is adjusted to reflect the varying sensitivity of the human eye to different wavelengths of light.
- Illuminance - unit : lux(lx)
Illuminance is the total luminous flux incident on a surface, per unit area. It is a measure of the intensity of the incident light, wavelength-weighted by the luminosity function to correlate with human brightness perception. Similarly, luminous emittance is the luminous flux per unit area emitted from a surface. Luminous emittance is also known as luminous exitance.

2011 LED Lamps Market Core Competitiveness Position

Traditional lighting giant introducing new light source, speed up LED form a new business model. Governments actively formulating environmental protection laws & regulations forbid the use of incandescent lamp. In addition, what is worth mentioning, Chinese Taiwan area LED industry rise so quickly in recent years, the chip production & package production occupy the first place in the world. Information shows that Chinese Taiwan the product's market share above 60% in the world, but its product class still cannot enter first echelon.

Due to the global illumination electricity consumption occupy 20% to total annual consumption, & 90% electricity is converted in to heat energy consumption, it is not cost-effective.

China LED chip production ability increase quickly, this will influence the low-end market to make the price of chip down 30-40%

Expecting LED market of this year, they expect sales of high power LED in the whole world will be around US $14.1 billions, increase 30% yearly. But with production ability increasing of Chinese market, the cost of LED will be down obviously, they guess the LED cost will be down 30-40% in low-end market.

In China, government policyowner improve the development of LED industry, like government grants on MOCVD machine, they guess this year there will be about 600 sets MOCVD machines will be installed, & LED chip producing ability of lots of companies will be also increase much.

In the past, Taiwan companies have much higher expertise and they enjoy much higher advantages, so they sell secondary Led chip to mainland China, but with the improvement of expertise of chip encapsulate, china made LED chip will influence Taiwan secondary chip market.

White LED lighting costs lower - Cree breakthrough process

LED semiconductor lighting manufacturer Cree said they successfully create new system to produce leds, its color and uniformity closer to incandescent lighting, can also reduce industry production costs.

According to reports, Cree's XM-L Simple White LED lights, only four watts of power generated by up to 340 lumens luminous flux, color temperature of about three,000 K warm white, can be 85 degrees Celsius to provide lighting fixture with Ta can get replaced Track lights, picture lights, projection lighting and chandeliers.

LED lights illuminate paintings in London’s National Gallery

Over the next years, the National Gallery, London, will install indoor LED lighting throughout its galleries, which will significantly reduce carbon emissions & improve the quality of light. The Gallery claims that it will be the first institution in the world to make use of LED lights together with a method that automatically adjusts outside roof-light blinds according to the amount & angle of sunlight. This ensures that only diffused light is present in the galleries through UV-filtered roof-light glazing.

Cree Broke LED Efficacy Records with 231 Lumen Per Watt,Create High record of high power R&D achievement in solid –state lighting field

Cree is announced to make a breakthrough on the record of 231 lumens per watt for a white power LED.which is another breakthrough to further demonstrates how Cree's relentless innovation continues to push the boundaries of what is feasible with LED lighting.

 

Development of LED bulb

Enter year 2011, LED lighting switch to indoor lighting gradually, which means the beginning of entering in to the civilian families. On hand this is a giant happy event, because the civilian market is very large; the other hand is a very serious challenge, because the civilian market demands low cost, high reliability. Now it is very far to meet the requirements of the civilian market, they can say it is still a long way to go.

The most common commercial lamp is incandescent lamp, what they use most. So if use LED in lieu of incandescent bulbs, it is necessary to create bulb, its head shape or appearance are similar to incandescent bulbs. This is what they regularly talked as LED bulb. Imagine, the marketplace for such bulb is immense.

Japanese power problems will accelerate the development of LED lighting

In 2011.3.11, the nuclear catastrophe caused by the earthquake has damaged dozens of power plants in Kanto & Northeast of Japan. It is estimated that, in the approaching summer peak period, there will be a shortage of power supply of 500 kilowatts in Tokyo & Kanto. So the Japanese government called on companies, home to take measures of energy-saving, the target is to reduce 20% to 25% of electricity consumption.

Beloved LED Lights Removed from Oregon Water Tower

Residents of Junction City, Oregon were sorely disappointed to see the removal of an exquisite RGB LED lighting system from the area historic water tower last Friday. The color-changing lights, which were installed pro-bono by Eugene Conrich Electric only six months prior, were a gift from Energizing Junction City board member Danuta Pfieffer. (Pfeiffer, a lifelong resident of the area, was hoping to commemmorate the spot where her husband tried to woo her sixteen years ago.) In addition to footing the bill for the LED lights, Pfieffer also agreed to cover the yearly electric bill, as well as lifelong maintenance through a local contractor.

These are sloppy seconds that any town ought to be glad to recieve.

Types of Lighting

You'll find that you have several options to consider when selecting what type of lighting you should use in your home.

When selecting an efficient lighting, it's a good idea to understand basic terms and principles of lighting. Also, it helps to explore your lighting options for indoors or outdoors if you haven't already. This will help narrow your selection.

Types of lighting include:

* Incandescent lighting
* Fluorescent lighting
* High-intensity discharge lighting
* LED lighting (light-emitting diodes)
* Low-pressure sodium lighting
* Outdoor solar lighting

LED dimming using Binary Code Modulation

Overview

The reason behind this article is to introduce Binary Code Modulation to a wider audience. Binary Code Modulation(BCM) is an alternative to Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to control frequency insensitive devices, such as LEDs. Both of these methods are described.

There are more than two methods of LED dimming available (for example error diffusion), but these are not coveraed in this article. Example code is provided for Binary Code Modulation that demonstrates 8 channels of 8-bit (256 values) dimming.

Dimming Led

Standard dimming controls 

Typical home incandescent lamp dimmers are fundamentally electronic switches that toggle on and off 120 times per second, by delaying the beginning of each half-cycle of AC power (known as phase control), they regulate the amount of power to the lamp filament. Because this happens so fast, most people do not see the flicker, but they see continuous dimming. Although the general operation of such electronic dimmers is much the same, the specific electrical characteristic of home dimmers can vary considerably. These are immaterial to incandescent bulbs, but is significant when used with electronic devices such as CFL and LEDs.