LED Lamp Application

LED lamps are used for both general lighting and special purpose lighting. Where colored light is required, LEDs come in multiple colors, which are produced without the need for filters. This improves the energy efficiency over a white light source that generates all colors of light then discards some of the visible energy in a filter.

White-light light-emitting diode lamps have the characteristics of long life expectancy and relatively low energy consumption. The LED sources are compact, which gives flexibility in designing lighting fixtures and good control over the distribution of light with small reflectors or lenses. Due to the small size of LEDs, control of the spatial distribution of illumination is extremely flexible,[1] and the light output and spatial distribution of a LED array can be controlled without efficiency loss.

LED lamps have no glass tubes to break, and their internal parts are rigidly supported, making them resistant to vibration and impact. With proper driver electronics design, an LED lamp can be made dimmable over a wide range; there is no minimum current needed to sustain lamp operation. LEDs using the color-mixing principle can produce a wide range of colors by changing the proportions of light generated in each primary color. This allows full color mixing in lamps with LEDs of different colors.[2] LED lamps contain no mercury.

However, some current models are not compatible with standard dimmers. It is not currently economical to produce high levels of lighting. As a result, current LED screw-in light bulbs offer either low levels of light at a moderate cost, or moderate levels of light at a high cost. In contrast to other lighting technologies, LED light tends to be directional. This is a disadvantage for most general lighting applications, but can be an advantage for spot or flood lighting.

LED lights have also recently become very popular in gardening and agriculture. First used by NASA to grow plants in space, LEDs are now used in home and commercial applications for indoor horticulture (aka grow lights).[3] The wavelengths of light emitted from LED lamps have been specifically tailored to meet the exact peaks for chlorophyll absorption in plants. By leaving out the light that plants do not use, LED lights trigger the proper photosynthetic responses of the plant, allowing the plant to grow more efficiently and effectively. The Red and Blue wavelengths of the visible light spectrum are used for photosynthesis, so these are the colors almost always used in LED grow light panels.[4] These lights are attractive to indoor growers since they do not consume as much power, do not require ballasts, and produce a fraction of the heat of HID lamps.[5] Since there is a significant reduction in heat, time can be extended between watering cycles because the plants transpire less under LED grow lights. Due to this change in growth conditions, a cautionary warning to those using LEDs is to not over-water the plants.