Using LED Bulbs To Light Your Home

With environmental and energy concerns on the rise, a more efficient bulb is needed. CFL bulbs are a lot more efficient, and are already replacing incandescent bulbs in many uses, however, they have some drawbacks, such has taking about a minute to reach their full brightness.

LED bulbs are a much better long-term alternative. Their only major disadvantage is cost, but their price will fall as they become more widely used. Their efficiency is due to their unique, solid-state design and way of producing light.

LED lighting works with the movement of electrons through a semiconductor material, which consists of both positively and negatively charged components. The positive layer has small openings that ‘free’ electrons from the negative component can pass through.

As an electric charge is applied to the semiconductor, a flow of electrons passes through the openings. Since they are passing from a higher to lower energy state, they give off energy in the form of photons, which can be directed to produce light.

LED lighting provides numerous advantages. Being solid-state and without filaments to burn out, LED bulbs will last much longer (some can last as long as 50,000 hours). Also, they are significantly more durable, and can withstand shocks that break other types of bulbs.

Since they are more efficient, they run much cooler. This minimizes the danger of being burned by touching a hot bulb, and also saves on cooling costs in the summer, since the bulbs are not producing less heat.

Unlike CFL bulbs, which take a while to reach their full brightness, LED bulbs come on within a second or two. They are also fully dimmable, can produce colored lighting without filters, and create a highly directional light, which is great for task lighting.

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See ‘Best LED Flashlight‘ for information about LED flashlights, including Dorcy, Coast, and SureFire flashlights, aswell as LED bulbs.