LED Lighting

What is LED Lighting?

LED lighting is an energy-efficient alternative to incandescent, halogen and/or compact fluorescent conventional lighting.

In the simplest terms, a light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current is passed through it. Light is produced when the particles that carry the current (known as electrons and holes) combine within the semiconductor material.

What is LED Lighting used for?

LED light bulbs are now widely used in and outside the home with popular ranges in led kitchen lighting, bathroom led lighting and led bedroom lighting.  LED outdoor lighting is ever increasing in popularity with warming temperatures and garden led lights as well as led flood lights can provide an ambience accompanied by security to outdoor spaces.

Business, industries, and education facilities have also begun to realise the cost-effectiveness of switching over to led lighting and are replacing fluorescent lighting with led tubes, led lighting panels, and led batten lights. LED spotlight bulbs are also prevalent in places like retail shops, museums, galleries and exhibitions. LED spotlights are especially popular for museum lighting and art gallery lighting,  where accent lighting is preferred as they can focus the light beam where it is needed in order to attract the eye of the visitor to the chosen product or exhibit.

Please see our LED Applications page for more information.

What are the benefits of LED Lighting?

An LED light bulb can be as much as 90% more energy efficient when compared to equivalent halogen or incandescent light bulbs, giving you a huge return on your investment after a short payback period. For further information on this please contact The LED Specialist experts.

Not only do LED light bulbs use less energy compared to conventional lighting they have a much longer lamp life and will last up to fifty longer making them a more sustainable lighting solution. As LED light bulbs and LED fittings do not contain hazardous materials like mercury found in some conventional lighting, they are more environmentally friendly and help reduce carbon footprint. They also save time as the frequency of failures will be less so they are a lower cost to maintain as well as power.

LED lighting technology continues to evolve but one of the biggest benefits of LED lighting is that it uses only a fraction of the energy that traditional lighting consumes to give an even better light output. A 40w halogen candle light bulb produces 450 lumens compared to for example a Philips Master Value 3.4 W LED Candle emitting 470 lumen, therefore giving you over 90% energy saving. There is a higher chance that this product’s light output will not depreciate later in life which is more prevalent with conventional lighting. The above product is also dimmable and compatible with over 95% of dimming systems. For further information on dimming compatibility please speak to one of The LED Specialist team.

The big difference between compact fluorescent lighting and LED lighting is that with the LED light bulb there is no warmup time, they are instant so as you turn the light on you have immediate illumination to your area.

While the cost of the LED light bulb might be slightly higher than that of a halogen or incandescent the payback period is relatively short when considering the huge energy savings you will immediately get when you switch over. This can vary from as little as a few months for larger projects where the lighting system is in use for over 18 hours a day, or just over a year when the lighting source is in use for anything over 12 hours a day. Quite simply, the more the LED light is on…the quicker you receive your payback on the expense of that product due to the amount of energy it is saving you.

Led light bulbs also have a significantly longer lamp life starting at around 15,000 hours for standard household lamps compared to only 1,000 hours for halogen and incandescent. This longer lamp life will reduce maintenance costs as these lamps wouldn’t need frequent replacing.