LED Lighting Guide

Light is at once both obvious and mysterious. We are bathed in yellow warmth every day and stave off the darkness with incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. But what exactly is light? We catch glimpses of its nature when a sunbeam angles through a dust-filled room, when a rainbow appears after a storm or when a drinking straw in a glass of water looks disjointed. These glimpses, however, only lead to more questions. Does light travel as a wave, a ray or a stream of particles? Is it a single color or many colors mixed together? Does it have a frequency like sound? And what are some of the common properties of light, such as absorption, reflection, refraction, and diffraction? You might think scientists know all the answers, but  light  continues to surprise them. Here's an example: We've always taken for granted that light travels faster than anything in the universe. Then, in 1999, researchers at Harvard University were able to slow a beam of light down to 38 miles an ...

The operational life of current white LED lamps is 100,000 hours. This is 11 years of continuous operation or 22 years of 50% operation. The long operational life of an led lamp is a stark contrast to the average life of an incandescent bulb, which is approximately 5000 hours. If the lighting device needs to be embedded into a very inaccessible place, using LEDs would virtually eliminate the need for routine bulb replacement. There is no comparison between the cost of LED lights vs. traditional incandescent options. With incandescent bulbs, the true cost of the bulb is the cost of replacement bulbs and the labor expense and time needed to replace them. These are significant factors, especially where there are a large number of installed bulbs. For office buildings and skyscrapers, maintenance costs to replace bulbs can be enormous. These issues can all be virtually eliminated with the LED option. The key strength of LED lighting is reduced power consumption. When design...

Light is a form of energy that can be released by an atom. It is made up of many small particle-like packets that have energy and momentum but no mass. These particles, called photons, are the most basic units of light. Photons are released as a result of moving electrons. In an atom, electrons move in orbitals around the nucleus. Electrons in different orbitals have different amounts of energy. Generally speaking, electrons with greater energy move in orbitals farther away from the nucleus. For an electron to jump from a lower orbital to a higher orbital, something has to boost its energy level. Conversely, an electron releases energy when it drops from a higher orbital to a lower one. This energy is released in the form of a photon. A greater energy drop releases a higher-energy photon, which is characterized by a higher frequency.  As we saw in the last section, free electrons moving across a diode can fall into empty holes from the P-type layer. This involves a drop ...

A diode is the simplest sort of semiconductor device. Broadly speaking, a semiconductor is a material with a varying ability to conduct electrical current. Most semiconductors are made of a poor conductor that has had impurities (atoms of another material) added to it. The process of adding impurities is called doping. In the case of LEDs , the conductor material is typically aluminum-gallium-arsenide (AlGaAs). In pure aluminum-gallium-arsenide, all of the atoms bond perfectly to their neighbors, leaving no free electrons (negatively charged particles) to conduct electric current. In doped material, additional atoms change the balance, either adding free electrons or creating holes where electrons can go. Either of these alterations makes the material more conductive. A semiconductor with extra electrons is called N-type material since it has extra negatively charged particles. In N-type material, free electrons move from a negatively charged area to a positively charged area....

LED car lights are the latest trend in the illumination of cars both as functional lights and decor ones. Functional LED car lights are installed by factories more frequently and in a growing range. The first application of factory-installed LED car lights happened in 2008 in a Lexus LS 600h / LS 600h L model, and their application has been growing ever since. An even wider range of after-market lights is also available for individuals who wish to switch for LED car lighting. These light bulbs are available in a wide range of colors sizes and fittings. Nearly all existing car lights can be replaced with LED equivalents, and several guidelines can help you change the bulbs yourself. Some DIY skill will be necessary though, to access the lights within the car. The advantages of LED car lights are numerous. LED car lights have the advantage of immediate start-up and very long lifespan. Good quality LED lights can have a lifespan of up to 50 000 hours, so you might change your ca...