LED Light Bulbs - Saving Energy One watt at time

LED Lights bring healthier living to rural families

2009-07-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

An experiment with low-cost, solar-powered light emitting diode (LED) lamps that is lighting up the lives of a handful of families in rural India could become a beacon of hope for millions of poor people worldwide who currently rely on kerosene lamps and other lighting solutions that are toxic--and frequently lethal--when used indoors.

Solar Lighting Eliminates the Need for Electricity in Rural Areas
The Grameen Surya Bijli Foundation (GSBF), a Bombay-based nongovernmental organization that is committed to bringing light to rural India, installed the $55 lamps in about 300 homes. About 100,000 villages in India still do not have electricity, and the cost of lighting those villages by traditional means is prohibitive. The solar LED technology eliminates the need for electric lights. After the initial cost, solar energy continues to light the lamps free of charge.

“Children can now study at night, elders can manage their chores better," one relieved villager told The Christian Science Monitor. "Life doesn't halt anymore when darkness falls.”

LED Lamps Provide Safer and Better Light For Less
Replacing kerosene lamps with clean solar-powered LED lamps also provides healthier and safer living conditions as well as better light for less money. According to The Christian Science Monitor, about 1.5 billion people worldwide use kerosene to light their homes, but the fuel is dangerous.

Separate reports by the Intermediate Technology Development Group and the World Health Organization indicate that indoor air pollution from kerosene and similar fuels used for indoor lighting and cooking cause more than 1.5 million deaths annually. The risk of fire is another significant health hazard with kerosene lamps.

Kerosene Expensive and Dangerous
Kerosene is also expensive for people living in poverty. In rural India, for example, buying kerosene requires nearly 4 percent of a typical household budget. Finally, LED lamps are simply more efficient and provide more useful light. According to The Christian Science Monitor, LED lamps produce “nearly 200 times more useful light than a kerosene lamp and almost 50 times the amount of useful light of a conventional bulb.”

“This technology can light an entire rural village with less energy than that used by a single conventional 100 watt light bulb,” says Dave Irvine-Halliday, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Calgary, Canada and the founder of Light Up the World Foundation (LUTW). Founded in 1997, LUTW has used solar-powered LED technology to light nearly 10,000 homes in 27 developing countries.

Strategies Needed to Reduce the Initial Cost of LED Solar Lamps
For the program to work long-term in India, GSBF says it will be necessary to lower the cost of the LED lamps by manufacturing them inside India instead of importing them from China and elsewhere. Manufacturing the lamps locally would lower the cost from $55 to $22 per unit, but building a factory would cost approximately $5 million, and investment capital is not easy to find.

NEWS : Big Business gets behind LEDS

2009-07-10T05:30:00.001-07:00

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, a subsidiary of global lighting manufacturer OSRAM, has announced an official company focus on eco-friendly, energy efficient LED lighting.

According to OSRAM, “the current conditions are ideal for a paradigm shift to light emitting diodes (LEDs). Light emitting diodes have considerable potential for increases in brightness and efficiency, and can deliver even more potential energy savings than traditional light sources.” LEDs are the most energy-efficient light sources available, as they can currently be five times more efficient than incandescent lamps, and are expected to be ten times more efficient in the future. Because they are point light sources, LEDs’ directional light helps reduce light pollution, thereby eliminating scattered, wasted light. With artificial lighting accounting for approximately 19% of global electricity consumption (2.4% of primary energy consumption worldwide), replacing conventional light sources with efficient light sources such as LEDs could cut global electricity consumption for lighting in half, according to OSRAM.

Double-figure growth is forecast for the LED market. As the technical performance of LEDs increases and their manufacturing costs decrease, OSRAM contends that LEDs will come to dominate more and more applications for which they offer significant energy savings and reduced overall costs. These applications include consumer electronics, automobiles, public sector/street lighting and solar energy applications.

Osram is one of the heavy weights in the lighting industry, this give a big boost to the LED market.

So whats Watts?

2009-06-30T09:03:00.001-07:00

So what is a Watt, well in the International System of Units, it is a derived unit of power; the power of a system in which one joule of energy is transferred per second. Symbol: W. Okay got that? right moving along….

For the rest of us its a measure of how much energy it takes to run something be it a computer, hair dryer or an electric light bulb. The higher the wattage the more energy it will use. So the lower the wattage the less energy it uses so the less it costs us to run it.

With traditional bulbs the wattage is used as a gauge to how bright the bulb is. Whats amazing with LED light bulbs is they are a lot more efficient at converting to electricity to light. A traditional bulb wastes about 97% of its energy producing heat. A CFL about 90%

This is why LED light bulbs are such energy and cost savers : an LED bulb rated at 5 watts is gives out the same amount of light as a CFL bulb rated at 16 watts and the same as a traditional bulb rated at 60 watts. The plucky little led uses 92% less energy than the traditional bulb. Which is great for the environment and great for your wallet.

Next time LED Lighting will be looking at some real world figures including initial costs, life span of the bulbs and see who wins in a battle royal of LED V CFL V Traditional bulbs

So how do LED Lights work?

2009-06-29T09:06:00.001-07:00

Before we answer that lets look at how traditional bulbs work

In a traditional bulb there is a wire filament, basically a very thin coiled wire. When a current is passed through it gets hot and so glows. Just like the ring on an electric stove glows when turned on. A lot of energy is wasted in these bulbs as a lot of the energy is turned into heat, which is great for a stove, not so great for a light source.

Traditional bulbs ruled the roost for many years till Compact Fluorescent Lamps CFL’s came along. CFs contain no filament and are a bit more complex. Basically the bulb contains a mix of argon gas and mercury vapor. When a current passes through this mix if produces ultraviolet light. This is not much use for our eyes but the inside of the tubes are coated with phosphorus. Ultraviolet light excites the phosphorus which gives off a bright white light. CFL’s are more efficient than traditional filament bulbs, but they do still waste energy in the form of heat and there are environmental concerns with the use of mercury in their manufacture. They do cost more but their longer life means that you do save money in the long run

Light Emitting Diodes LEDS are the new contenders for lighting your home and office. An LED is made by join two materials which have very special properties. N-types have extra electrons and P-Types which are missing electrons. A match made in heaven. Putting a current though these two materials helps the spare electrons flow from the N type to the P type. When the electrons join onto the P-type energy is released in the form of light. The colour of light that is produced depends upon the materials used . This is why so many products originally had red LEDS as it was much easier to make red ones. Now its possible to make a range of colours. White is produced by our old friend phosphorus.

So why are LEDs so great that they get their own blog?

They use a lot less energy than traditional bulbs and CFL’s . Good for the environment and for your electricity bill
They last much longer than traditional bulbs and CFL’s. Good for the environment and your wallet. An LED can last over 10 years
Less hazardous to manufacture and use. Safer for the environment and you, no dangerous vapor released or broken glass if you did manage to break one open
Generate much less heat. Good for your fingers, safer to use around children

Welcome to LED Light Bulbs

2009-06-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome to LED Light Bulbs. Led Light bulbs and fixtures are the latest way to go green in your home or office. Providing benefits for the environment, saving energy and cutting costs.

LED Light Bulbs aims to bring you the latest news in LED technology, advice on using LED lighting in your home, reviews on the newest lighting fixtures and bulbs that use this energy saving technology.

We also wants to hear from you, what are your views on this exciting new technology. Are you planning to use LED lighting in your home? What have been your experiences in installing energy saving bulbs.

We are also here to answer your questions. Do LED light bulbs really save you money on your electricity bill? How much energy can I save?