Let’s go back to 1962….Nick Holonyak Jr. works away tirelessly to finish his latest project, a new light source. Enter the LED. Holonyak’s first LED is red, and this is the start of something much larger. Ten years after his LED, a graduate student of his, M. George Craford creates a new yellow LED and a brighter red LED. Little did they know that their inventions would lead to the most energy efficient lighting 50 years later.
LEDs are small, solid state lights that are highly energy efficient. They last significantly longer than incandescent lamps and product little to no harmful lighting. Their cost to run them is much lower, they require little to no maintenance, and are environmentally friendly.
Here are 5 benefits of upgrading to LED today.
Lifetime
The average incandescent lamp last for roughly 750 hours of continuous burning. That’s about 31 days of light. LEDs average a lifespan of 50,000 hours, although some have been known to exceed this.
50,000 Hours = 2,083 Days = 6 Years
You could run one LED light bulb 67 times longer than an incandescent. Not only does this save you on having to purchase lights as often, but it lowers the energy consumption for that period of time. Especially with the technology of LEDs advancing, and the prices of the bulbs dropping, upgrading seems more and more logical.
Energy Consumption
LEDs use significantly less energy than their counterparts, they are about 80-90% more energy efficient than incandescent. Most of the power drawn by an incandescent is lost to heat, about 80%. That means that only 20% of this energy is actually used for lighting. LEDs do the opposite of this. 80% of the electricity drawn is converted to light, while only 20% of the energy consumed is lost to heat.
So if $100 of your electrical bill is lighting, $80 of it, is heat lost by running an 
incandescent and $20 is lighting. For LEDs its the opposite. $80 of your lighting cost is actual light, while only $20 is heat loss.
Pro Tip: Losing less energy to heat means less spend on cooling costs in the summer
Low Maintenance
LEDs require little to no maintenance after they are installed. Using outdated lighting systems you constantly have to purchase new bulbs and change them. The long life of LEDs avoids you having to get up on a latter every three months to change something. If the ballast goes out, there’s even more money you need to spend to fix it. LEDs do not require a ballast. Most cases of LEDs require no maintenance, so you can set it, and forget it.
Durability
LEDs are a solid state light. Meaning they utilize semiconductor material, instead of a filament or neon gas. (I would go into the science of how they works, but then you’d probably fall asleep sitting there reading this.) An LED is a small chip covered in an epoxy resin, which makes them much more durable than traditional incandescent light bulbs and fluorescent tubes. Because they don’t use any fragile components like glass and filaments, LEDs can withstand shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, and some even feature shatter proof lenses.
Environmentally Friendly
LED lights are the most environmentally friendly lighting solutions on the market today, and there are numerous benefits to running them. They last significantly longer than other lighting sources, therefore they don’t need to be replaced as often. This reduces the impact of packaging, disposing, and manufacturing. Don’t forget, they use significantly less energy too.
LEDs contain no mercury, that means when you dispose them, no mercury is leaking into the ground, into the water, and into the environment. Unlike some of their less environmentally friendly counterparts.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, “Widespread use of LED has the greatest potential impact of energy savings in the United States. By 2027, widespread use of LEDs 
could save about 348 terawatt hours of electricity. This is the equivalent annual electrical output of 44 large electric power plants, and a total savings of more than $30 Billion at today’s electricity prices.”
LED lighting is not the future of lighting, but the present. Technology advances and the price of these lamps, bulbs, and tubes continues to drop as they become easier to manufacture and improve.
For anybody looking to improve their quality of light, help the environment, and save some serious money, LEDs from PROLIGHTING.com are the way to go.
Comments are closed.