The appearance of the electric light drove out the darkness and brought light to mankind. According to statistics, lighting power consumption in the world accounts for about 20% of the total power generation. With the increase of people’s demand for lighting, looking for more efficient and energy-saving light sources has become one of the important research directions of scientists.
What are LEDs?
The full name of LED – light emitting diode. A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor that converts electrical energy into light energy. Commonly known metals such as copper and iron are conductors, while wood and rubber are insulators. Materials between conductors and insulators are called semiconductors. Semiconductors have a characteristic that they can emit bright light after being energized.
What’s so good about lights made of LEDs?
1. High efficiency
Using the same electricity to emit stronger light, the efficiency of the most commonly used incandescent lamps converting electricity into light is 5%, and most of the remaining 95% of electrical energy is converted into heat energy. Therefore, the incandescent lamp will be particularly hot when it is on for a long time.
The electricity-to-light conversion rate of energy-saving lamps is 30% to 40%, which is a great improvement, but more than half of the electric energy is still not used. And there is the problem of pollution.
The electro-optic transfer rate of LED lights is close to 80%, and almost most of the electric energy has become light.
2. Long life
The service life of incandescent lamps is about 1,000 hours, and the lamp time of a normal family is about 2,000 hours a year. If you install incandescent lamps at home, you need to replace two bulbs a year.
The service life of qualified LED lamp products is about 30,000 hours. Calculated based on the 2,000 hours of lighting time in a normal family year, if the LED lights are installed in the home, it can last for more than 10 years without replacement.
In the future, where there is light, there will be LEDs
With the development of technology, the light color of LED light source is very single. After adjustment, it can even emit light in a specific wavelength range, which is difficult for traditional light sources. Scientists can tailor a special LED light source for each place, so that not only can the advantages of high light efficiency of LED light source be utilized, but also the energy utilization rate can be maximized. In the future, LED light sources will be used in more fields such as medical treatment, sanitation, aerospace, deep diving and so on.
