What Is LED Lighting?

LED lighting is a lamp or other light that uses LEDs as a source of illumination. Most lighting comes from an incandescent or fluorescent light bulb. Different than the traditional bulb, LEDs can be put into traditional lamps and used like most other light bulbs. They are much more efficient than incandescent or fluorescent bulbs.

LED stands for light-emitting diode. That is, simply, a semiconductor device that converts electricity to light by using the movement of electrons. LEDs were invented in Russia in the 1920s. They were put into practical use in the United States in the 1960s by General Electric. In the late 1960s, Monsanto Corporation was the first to mass-produce LEDs, and Hewlett-Packard used them in its early calculators. LED lighting can be roughly classified as LED indoor lighting and LED outdoor lighting. LED indoor lighting, as known as LED house lighting includes LED bulbs, LED Tubes, LED Downlights, LED Spotlights, LED Candle lights and LED Track Lights etc. LED outdoor lighting includes LED Flood lights and LED Street Lighting etc.

There are many consumer advantages to LEDs over incandescent or fluorescent light bulbs. LED lights consume much less energy. They are 300 percent more efficient than a compact fluorescent light (CFL), and 1,000 percent more efficient than an incandescent bulb. They have a very long life, about 50,000 hours of use at 70 percent of their original power. (LEDs don't burn out or flicker, they simply fade.) This works out to eight hours a day for 13 years at 70 percent power. A typical 60-watt incandescent bulb may last about 1,000 hours.