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LED lights are becoming popular as safety and accent lighting outside of homes. These long lasting lights are convenient particularly in high, hard to reach areas where outdoor lighting is often found,

Safety lighting – LED lights can be used to illuminate walkways, light the doors of homes, and light sheds and garages. The outdoor LED lights have many of the same advantages that the indoor LED lights have. They are long lasting so they do not need to be changed frequently. They are highly energy efficient, saving the consumer a lot of money over time. They are also difficult to break. When the occasional baseball comes flying at your backdoor light from the neighbor’s yard, you are less likely to have to worry about it breaking.

Accent lighting – Spot lights, landscape lighting, deck lighting and other outside accent lights are all available in LED lights. From the infrequency of changing them to their cost effectiveness, outdoor LED accent lights have the same benefits as outdoor safety lighting.

Most homes have one – the person who follows everyone else around turning off the lights as soon as a room is empty. Most likely, it’s the same person who pays the electric bill. That person knows that turning off those lights will save money. There’s another benefit to using less electricity. It’s the environmental benefit.

LED (light emitting diode) technology has the potential to greatly decrease the damage done to the environment by the tremendous amount of electricity consumed throughout the world.

To better understand how LED lights can reduce the environmental damage, first you need to understand how the use of electricity does its damage.

Traditional electrical power plants are powered by burning some sort of fuel. For example, let’s take coal. To power one light bulb that continuously runs for a year, it is estimated that over 700 pounds of coal would need to be burned. This large amount of coal produces electricity, but it also produces many environmental problems.

Those 700 plus pounds of coal would also produce approximately 5 pounds each of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. These cause acid rain and smog. In addition, the coal produces an estimated 1800 pounds of carbon dioxide which produces greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gas is a suspected cause of global warming.

So, if the consumption of electricity that is a direct result of lighting is reduced, it follows that there would be great environmental benefits. A reduction in smog, acid rain and the rate of global warming could all be accomplished by using less electricity.

In the United States 20-30% of the electricity consumed goes directly to lighting. It’s not just homes and businesses. Street, highway and bridge lights that are on for 8-12 hours a day consume electricity. Tunnel lights are on consistently. In the United States, if you are anywhere but in the remotest of places, there is artificial light.

There is a high environmental price to pay for the convenience of artificial lighting. The demand for this lighting is ever increasing. Therefore, it is necessary to find alternatives to the traditional method of providing artificial light.

Enter LED lights. They do not use a filament or a glass bulb like traditional lights. Instead they are made from small state of the art chips. These chips convert electricity into light directly and use up far less electricity in doing so. The chips are placed together under solid plastic making them very difficult to break.

The environmental benefits to the LED lights are many. They reach beyond simply using less electricity. A wide spread use of LED lights has the potential to do the following:

Reduce the depletion of fossil fuels. LED lights use up to 90% less electricity to produce light. Widespread use of LED lights would reduce the amount of electricity drawn from power plants for lighting purposes. The need for the petroleum, natural gas and coal that are used in creating electricity would decrease.

Increase the effectiveness of non-traditional power sources. Fossil fuels are finite in supply. There is always talk about finding alternatives for them and trying to conserve them. One alternative is nuclear power, but the environmental dangers of nuclear power are great in and of themselves.

There are other alternatives. Solar and wind powered electricity plants are much safer environmental options. Also there is an endless supply of sun and wind. However, these plants do not produce the amount of energy that traditional power plants do. Because LED lights consume so much less electricity, widespread use of the lights would make solar and wind powered plants much more feasible

Reduce impact of global warming, acid rain and smog.
As stated earlier, the use of traditional fossil fuels to create energy has a negative environmental impact. The creation of by-products such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and carbon dioxide can be reduced.

Reduce pollution from manufacturing plants.
LED’s take less energy to manufacture than traditional filament and glass light bulbs do. Manufacturing plants use energy no matter what they are making. However, if they manufacture LED lights instead of traditional lights, less energy will be used. This furthers the positive environmental impact of LED lights.

Reduce trash.
Since LED lights have the potential to burn up to 100,000 hours they do not need to be replaced frequently. Lights that are replaced frequently end up in the trash.

Consider this. Strings of holiday lights need to be replaced every two to three years. The filaments burn out or someone steps on a bulb or the chord becomes defective. Every December, tons of strings of holiday lights are sent to landfills.

Strings of LED lights however have the potential to burn up to 100,000 hours. That’s 134 Decembers. Since there are no filaments to burn out and no glass to break, strings of LED lights could last decades. The environmental advantages in this alone are great, not to mention the financial savings in reduced replacement and electricity costs.

Also, LED lights don’t just work off of electricity; they can work off of battery power. Light sources that run on batteries can eat up battery power quickly. Replacing batteries frequently is a necessity.

Since LED lights use so much less energy, they draw much less energy from batteries. This reduces the frequency with which batteries need to be replaced. Less batteries in landfills is a good thing. The leakage of environmentally destructive toxic materials into soil and water systems will be greatly reduced.

The widespread use of LED lights can impact our environment positively. How quickly this happens depends on how quickly the government, businesses and individual consumers accept this new type of lighting. Most likely, the person who follows everyone around turning off lights will accept it quickly. The rest will follow, perhaps just a bit more slowly.

LED lighting is definitely clawing its way into every industry segment; hence, market potential is tremendous. Efficient and cost-saving LED lighting will no longer be the monopoly of the industrialized world – imagine the impact of this new technology on the third world as well. The popular expression, “faster than the speed of light” will be manifested by the growing popularity of LED lighting so that when it reaches far-away countries in the planet, we could very well witness rising clusters of populations brought together by the power of light.

In 10 years – probably less – incandescent bulbs will be marching towards the archives of historical inventions, as LED lighting takes over traffic signals, large outdoor screens, billboards, cars, and electrical consoles in homes. Flashlights – those devices that people scramble for during a power outage in emergency situations – are now manufactured using LED technology. Think how much profit dollars were made by flashlight manufacturers when they switched their product over to LED lighting.

Russ Arensman wrote an “enlightening” article in Electronic Business Magazine about the size of the lighting market. Light emitting diode chip makers, he says, are hoping to grab a piece of the action in the $12 billion traditional lighting market. Arensman quotes Bob Steele of Strategies Unlimited (www.ferret.com) who said that the LED market is expected to grow about 14% each year over the next five years. In 2004, the market was worth close to US$4 billion; in 2009, that figure is expected to jump to $7.2 billion.

According to Steele, there are five major players in the higher-end LED market: Cree, Lumileds Lighting, Nichia, Osram Opto Semiconductor and Toyoda Gosei. All are doing just fine. Lumileds Lighting has an interesting section on its web site on the 10 Myths of LED Lighting, and it might be worth taking a look, as it does shed “light” on this technology.

Bigger may not be better, but brighter is…definitely better! LED technology is lighting up our lives, in no time that light at the end of the tunnel will be clearer, sharper, and more dazzling to the human eye.

At least 30 years. That’s how long LED lighting has been around, but when it did make its first appearance, it was in its most primitive – indeed experimental – form. It was primitive, because only one color – red – was possible. This was in the 1960’s, although years before that, the British were already tapping into the phenomenon of electroluminescence which, it can be safely assumed, paved the way for LED lighting to acquire a more solid footing, as the discovery of specific materials made more colors possible.

So it began with red, and by experimenting with certain elements (phosphide and gallium substrate were mentioned), another color was born, this time bright orange. The 1970’s welcomed two more colors, a pale green and a yellow. By the time the 1980’s rolled in, lighting experts were dabbling in red, green, orange-red, orange, and yellow colors, thanks to the gallium aluminum arsenide phosphide (chemical symbol: GaAlAsP), leading the way for ultra bright LED lighting.

Then that much coveted color – blue – came in the 90’s. The blue chips in turn became the basis for white LEDs, which until this decade was unheard of.

The accomplishments made in LED lighting cannot be measured by color alone. True, there are even exotic shades these days like aqua and pink – sufficient cause to celebrate. LED lighting progress, however, should also be measured by the degree of brightness that has been achieved. While early generation LEDs were used as indicators – as in display calculators and digital watches – they are now appearing in an increasing number of applications that call for higher brightness. To cite a few examples, computer screens, traffic lights and car headlights require more brightness that traditional lighting is unable to provide. In fact, it is estimated that the latter part of 2005 will witness the switching of all US traffic lights into LED technology. Wavicle, a company that specializes in LED lighting, reports on its web site that LED is now making a giant step: from that of being an indicator to a sought-after illuminator.

White LED lights are being used to backlight enormous LCD television screens like those used in sports stadiums. The backlight created by an LED array allows for incredibly clear, crisp definition that has turned the television world on its ear. Colored LED lights are being used in everything from novelty ‘mood lights’ like the Mood Egg and Cylinder to stair lighting for safety to track and directional lighting to accent home décor.

One of the most appealing properties of LED lights is the ease with which they can be programmed to change color. With incandescent or fluorescent bulbs, getting a different color means changing the gel, changing the bulb or otherwise manipulating the material through which the light shines. Not so with LED lights. The color of the light is a function of the light emitting diode itself, not the color of the cover. By arranging red, green and blue diodes in one light, it is possible to create LED lights that shift and change colors through the full spectrum that is available to be digitally manipulated.

Thanks to companies like Color Kinetics and advances in LED lighting, mood lighting has come of age. Programmable LED lights can illuminate wall or ceiling panels, sconces, recessed track lighting – even entire walls. The programmable display can be set to cycle through a pre-set range of colors, to create random lighting patterns or to respond to voice, heat, light or music.

While the idea of ‘mood lighting’ may seem a bit like a futuristic novelty, there are practical, real life applications for it. At Children’s Hospital in Boston, for instance, juvenile patients awaiting stem cell transplants as treatment for cancer can stay in rooms that are fitted with mood light ceiling panels provided by Color Kinetics. The ceiling panels can be adjusted for comfort or to offer an intriguing light show – or even programmed to pulse along with music played on the CD.

LED (light emitting diode) lights have been around for decades. They have slowly made their way into homes. LED lights were originally introduced to consumers through things like illuminated digital clocks, the display on microwave ovens, and the remote controls for televisions. The average consumer did not realize exactly what it was that lit these products.

Recently, however, LED lights have begun to replace many traditional lighting sources, and consumers are intentionally using them in their homes. Slowly, people are learning about the benefits of LED lights and finding uses for them around the house.

What are the benefits? First of all, there is the potential for tremendous cost savings. LED lights use much less electricity or battery power than traditional lights. Also, they last much longer. They burn cooler than traditional lights. Additionally, LED lights are much less destructible than traditional lights. As these benefits become more widely known to consumers, the use of LED lights in the home will increase.

Because of the many benefits that LED lighting provides, their use in homes will increase greatly as the amount of available products increases. They save consumers money both in replacement fees and electricity. They are environmentally friendly because of their low energy consumption. Additionally, they save consumers from spending the time to replace lights, some of which are often difficult to reach. As consumers become aware of these factors, traditional lighting will be replaced with LED lighting in homes.

If our lighting experts continue what they are supposed to be doing for the sake of advancing technology, it won’t be long before we see not only the light at the end of the tunnel, but also in every conceivable space that needs to be seen or scrutinized by the human eye.

A special kind of lighting is heading our way. The term in technological circles is called “LED”, which stands for Light Emitting Diode. It was a slow journey at first, but in some areas of the lighting industry, progress has been described as occurring in “leaps and bounds.”

If only Thomas Edison knew what mankind has done to his light bulb! Our speculation is that he would be salivating by now, probably knocking himself for not allowing his instincts to be “LED” into the magic of solid state lighting. He would have been ecstatic to see that LED lighting is not only economical, but is much more efficient in lumen output and does no harm to the environment. Lighting entrepreneurs are at least spared from the headache of having to grapple with strict environmental laws. LED lighting is produced today using highly-advanced elements, certainly a far cry from the bamboo shavings that Edison used for his light bulb.

Outdoors, LED lights have given rise to a new art of exterior décor – lightscaping. Outdoor lighting has always been important for safety, but the ease with which LED lights can be installed and controlled has turned lighting your yard, steps or patio into an art form. LED lights are used to outline architectural features, light pathways and illuminate fountains, pools, plants and objects of art, turning a back yard into a dramatic landscape of light and shadow.