New advances in LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) mean that you should seriously consider them above most other lighting types.

A revolution in lighting is quietly happening. It's due to amazing technological advances in a type of light called an LED, or Light Emitting Diode.

LEDs already surround us. For many years they have shown us when things are operating, indicated the time, and lit exits and aisles.

Being 'solid state' like silicon chips and photovoltaic cells, LED designs share much in common with semiconductor manufacturing.

The constant gains in computer processing power are a good analogy to the increasing light output seen in modern LEDs as well as the increasing efficiencies in solar cells.

Why use LEDs?

Major benefits of LED lighting systems include:

• Lower costs: cheaper to buy and using only 5 - 10 per cent the energy of incandescent bulbs, especially when coloured light is needed

• Long lasting: with a service life of around 100,000 hours, so maintenance an easy task

• Better quality light output: minimum ultraviolet and infrared radiation

• Safer: there's no heat, noise, vibration or high voltage

• Smaller: their high intensity and low weight and volume, make them useful for lighting tight spaces

• DC power supply: no flicker.

• Monochromatic light: more accurate measurements due to less chromatic aberration in the lens in comparison to white light sources

• Flexibility: more imaginative lighting designs are possible.

45 year lifespan

Typical lifetime for a white LED is 100 000 hours. At six hours of use per day this means that an LED will last 45 years. This makes them ideal not only for all uses, but especially for places such as high ceilings where accessibility to change bulbs is difficult.

The small shape and low heat generated by such LEDs will enable home and industrial lighting systems to take on shapes and sizes never before possible.

How they work

LEDs are diodes at heart. A diode restricts the flow of current to one direction.

As current passes through the LED, the materials that make up the junction react and light is emitted. By experimenting with different junction materials and package designs, LEDs are now bright - and white - enough to be considered for applications that traditionally use incandescent bulbs.

Bright white LEDs consume very little power. Energy conversion efficiency can be ten times as high as is typical of incandescent light bulbs.

Therefore, relatively intense light sources can be made that require very little electricity. Consequently, portable or stand-alone lights require smaller batteries and can be charged with smaller chargers (solar, wind or other).

Use in cities

You may have noticed that many cities have begun to replace traffic signals with LED-based designs - significant energy savings being a key reason. Consumer-orientated products are beginning to appear as well.

A company named Tektite offers an array of LED-based products, including some rather impressive flashlights. Streamlight is another company specialising in portable LED lighting solutions.

The Nasdaq sign in New York City is one of the most impressive uses of LEDs ever crafted. Using an array of 18 million red, blue, and green LEDs that function as pixels, this monster can mimic a television screen capable of displaying stunning graphics and video.

The power savings offered by modern LED lighting systems should be reason enough to consider them over incandescent designs. LEDs will continue to follow their own Moore's Law by doubling their brightness every 18 to 24 months, as they have for the last 30 years.

So next time you replace or install lighting, it could pay you to investigate the LED option.

[UK installer: Green Dragon; UK manufacturer: SolarGB. Both sites designed by ourselves.]

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