The use of light emitting diodelamps(LED) to minimize electrical losses in distribution utilities.
Man’s quest for energy conservation abled him to create many forms of technology innovations. This includes the utilization of LED to make the LED lamps. LED or Light-Emitting Diode is an electronic device able to emit light through direct current supply source. It is a type of lamp that said to be in solid-state form. LED lamps, like compact fluorescent lamps have a higher energy efficiency compared to the traditional incandescent lamps.
The light output of a single light-emitting diode (LED) is small compared to a single unit compact fluorescent lamp or incandescent lamp. To produce light output that would equal or even exceed those of conventional devices for lighting, LED lamps uses multiple numbers of diodes. For practicality, LED lamps are typically created with bases identical to incandescent lamps to make it interchangeable with these traditional devices. Since LED is a semi-conductor, LED lamp requires direct current source to operate. To make it useable to AC powered supply, LED lamps are usually operated with external or internal rectifier circuits able to produce the LED lamps DC requirement.
Due to LED lamps energy efficiency characteristic, LED lamps are used not only to light up rooms in houses and buildings but also to some other lighting applications like flashlights, car headlights, light decorations, etc. Street lighting also greatly benefited to the use of LED lamps because it requires lesser electrical energy as compared to sodium-light lamps and Halogen lamps with similar illumination output.
One major known disadvantage in using LED lamps is it requires higher initial cost compared to incandescent and fluorescent lamps. Since LEDs when used in high temperatures becomes degraded and damaged, LED lamps usually requires heat sinks and cooling fins to dissipate the heat produce by the device and the environment.A LED does not emit light in all direction unlike those incandescent lamps making it more advantageous. A directed light requires less Lumen compared to lighting sources which would need reflectors or lenses to do the same. For illuminating a 360° orbit, the benefits of LED are much smaller.
To understand more the comparison of LED lamps to other lighting technologies, a simple electrical comparison from Wikipedia is provided below.
Incandescent lamps (light bulbs) generate light by passing electric current through a resistive filament, thereby heating the filament to a very high temperature so that it glows and emits visible light. A broad range of visible frequencies are naturally produced, yielding a "warm" yellow or white color quality. Incandescent light is highly inefficient, as about 98% of the energy input is emitted as heat. A 100 W light bulb for 120 V operation emits about 1,700 lumens, about 17 lumens/W; for 230 V bulbs the figures are 1200 lm and 12 lm/W. Incandescent lamps are relatively inexpensive to make. The typical lifespan of an AC incandescent lamp is around 1,000 hours. They work well with dimmers. Most older light fixtures are designed for the size and shape of these traditional bulbs.
Fluorescent lamps (light bulbs) work by passing electricity through mercury vapor, which in turn emits ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet light is then absorbed by a phosphor coating inside the lamp, causing it to glow, or fluoresce. While the heat generated by a fluorescent lamp is much less than its incandescent counterpart, energy is still lost in generating the ultraviolet light and converting this light into visible light. If the lamp breaks, exposure to mercury can occur. Linear fluorescent lamps are typically five to six times the cost of equivalent incandescent lamps but have life spans around 10,000 and 20,000 hours. Lifetime varies from 1,200 hours to 20,000 hours for compact fluorescent lamps. Most fluorescent lamps are not compatible with dimmers. Those with "iron" ballasts flicker at 100 or 120 Hz, and are less efficient. The latest T8-sized triphosphate fluorescent lamps made by Osram, Philips, Crompton and others have a life expectancy greater than 50,000 hours, if coupled with a warm-start electronic ballast. The life expectancy depends on the number of on/off cycles, and is lower if the light is cycled often. The efficiency of these new lamps approaches 100lumens/W. The efficiency of fluorescent tubes with modern electronic ballasts and compact fluorescents commonly ranges from 50 to 67 lumens/W. For comparison, general household LED bulbs available in 2011 emit 64lumens/W, with the best LED bulbs coming in at about 100 lumens/W.
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