The Benefits of LED Lighting

LED lighting has many benefits.  Although most people will agree that LED lights are rather costly, the benefits of using them outweigh the disparity in saving a few pennies by purchasing cheaper light bulbs.

The average life of current white LED lamps is approximately 100,000 hours. This equates to 11 years of continuous operation, or 22 years of 50% operation, respectively. The longer life of an LED lamp is a significant contrast to the average 5000 hour life of an incandescent bulb.  This benefit alone makes using LED lights more practical and economical, but there's more!  When designed properly, an LED circuit approaches 80% efficiency; meaning that 80% of the electrical energy is converted to light energy.

From an environmental standpoint, LED lamps are the best option too!   Regular light bulbs put carbon dioxide, sulfur oxide and nuclear waste into our atmosphere and landfills. By simply changing one incandescent light bulb to a low energy LED lighting will keep one half ton of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere through its life cycle. It will also keep the sulfur dioxide and nuclear waste to a minimum in landfills. Moreover, if every house in the United States switched to LED lights, 90 power plants could retire, an amazing fact especially considering that more power plants are being planned and constructed to keep up with growing demands for electricity.

The Advantages of LED Lighting

LED Lighting Facts

The functional life of current white LED lamps is approximate 100,000 hours. Stated another way, this is about eleven years of continuous operation, or twenty two years of 50% operation. The exceptionally long life of LED lighting is substantial in comparison to the average 5000 hour life of an incandescent bulb.


The key strength of LED lighting is its reduced power consumption. Typically an LED circuit will approach 80% efficiency, which means that 80% of the electrical energy is converted to light energy. The remaining 20% is lost as heat energy. Again, in comparison to incandescent lighting the difference is staggering!  Incandescent bulbs operate at about 20% efficiency; with 80% of the electrical lost as heat energy.


Viewing the comparison of power consumption in money terms, operating a 100 Watt incandescent bulb for 1 year, with an electrical cost of 10 cents per kilowatt hour, it would cost $88 for electricity. Moreover, $70 of this expense will have been used to heat the room. On the other hand, if LED lighting were used the electricity cost would only be $23 per year, with only $4.60 of this expense having been used to heat the room. Realistically the cost savings would be higher as most incandescent light bulbs blow out within a year and require replacements whereas LED light bulbs can easily be used for a decade or more before burning out.


Clearly, there is no comparison between the cost of LED lights vs. traditional incandescent lighting options. With incandescent bulbs, the true cost of the bulb is the cost of replacement bulbs and the labor expense and time needed to replace them. These are significant factors, especially where there are a larger number of installed bulbs. For office buildings and skyscrapers, maintenance costs to replace bulbs can be enormous. These costs can be substantially reduced with LED lighting.


The primary limitation to adopting white LED lighting as a lighting standard is the current high cost of led bulbs. Even though the cost of led lighting consistently decreases, LED light bulbs are still expensive. A single AC bulb (17 LED), replacing a 25 watt incandescent, will cost about $40. Although LED's are expensive, the cost variance is easily recouped over time through energy consumption savings. Factor in that it is significantly cheaper to maintain led lights, the best value comes from commercial use, where maintenance and replacement costs are more expensive. 

With their growing popularity, traffic lights and outdoor signs are being switched over to LED's in many U.S. cities. However, despite the fact that LED flashlights, headlamps and small task lights are becoming more and more popular, LED automotive headlights are currently only being factory-installed in higher-end luxury cars.