Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) represent various types of semiconductor devices that produce incoherent narrow-spectrum light fascicles when powered with a steady-state voltage electrical source, producing the effect known as electroluminescence. LEDs come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors, nowadays serving for a multitude of purposes: illuminating traffic signals, railroad crossing signals and display panels, facilitating optical fiber communications, providing backlighting for LCD televisions and displays, being integrated in remote control and optical devices (infrared LEDs), or being used simply for decorative purposes (LEDs can emit light of various colors – blue, green, yellow, orange, red and purple, to name only a few).
LED lights have come a long way, today’s offer comprising highly reliable, durable and economical designs that can take various forms (LED bulbs, LED pods, LED tubes, LED displays, etc) and fulfill many different roles (functional or purely aesthetical).
LEDs are by far superior to traditional light sources such as incandescent light bulbs and fluorescent lamps, as they use less energy and produce less heat (unlike conventional light sources which consume a lot of electrical energy but transform only a fraction of the used energy into light, converting the rest of it into heat, LED lights are very economical, consuming less electrical energy and transforming a great part of it into light), have an impressively long life span (LED lights can last for more than 10 years), light up more quickly (in most cases LEDs can achieve full brightness in a matter of microseconds, compared to some fluorescent lamps that usually light up after 0,5 or 1 second and achieve full brightness in an average of 30 seconds) and can directly focus the light they emit (unlike incandescent and fluorescent light sources that generally include an external reflector that redirects the luminous rays in the desired direction).
Compared to conventional sources of light, LED bulbs and other similar LED devices can directly emit light of a certain color without the aid of color filters. Consequently, the colored light produced by LED bulbs is considerably brighter, clearer and more vivid, rendering colored-light producing LED bulbs the perfect devices for interior and exterior illumination of architectural structures, commercial panels and various decorative objects.
In addition, LED lights such as LED bulbs, LED pods and LED tubes don’t burn out unexpectedly like incandescent bulbs; when they fail, LEDs tend to dim out gradually, continuing to fulfill their purpose even in the event of a malfunction. While traditional light sources are unreliable and sometimes even unsafe (incandescent bulbs can sometimes explode due to fluctuant voltage), LED lights are durable, reliable, safe and efficient. All the mentioned advantages of LEDs render such devices the perfect replacement for incandescent and fluorescent light sources and nowadays LED light sources are already extensively used in many different industrial branches.
The main disadvantage of LED light sources and the primary reason why such devices are still rarely used for domestic, private purposes is that they have an expensive character. Unlike the omnipresent incandescent light bulbs and fluorescent lamps, devices that are usually very cheap, most LED light sources (particularly those with a high luminosity index) are still unaffordable to some categories of persons. However, if you carefully establish a cost-benefits analysis, LEDs are a great choice and a wise investment for anyone, regardless of material condition. Compared to conventional light sources that have a low purchase price but consume lots of energy and need to be regularly replaced, LED light sources have a higher purchase price but last for many years and consume only a small fraction of the energy used by incandescent and fluorescent light devices. Thus, if you are looking for durable, reliable, energy-efficient light devices, LED light sources are by far the best choice.
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