Should You Use LED Light Tubes In Your House?

Unlike incandescent bulbs, high-power LED light tubes cannot be simply plugged into a wall socket. 

Several companies are working to overcome the technological and economic challenges by developing LED light fixtures and retrofit these lights using high-power LEDs. 

Thermal management, complex drive circuitry, optics, and packaging are challenging hurdles for developers to contend with. 

There are also educational barriers to overcome in the development of commercial LED illumination products. 

Getting users to adopt new types of fixtures, understand the illumination characteristics of LEDs, choose the appropriate viewing angle for a given application.  

And also select the appropriate intensity for a given application, and understand the limitations of LED color temperatures are pivotal to developing the market for LED technology in commercial and residential lighting.

The Illumination Angle

LEDs are extremely energy-efficient from an illumination efficacy standpoint, i.e., lumens per watt. 

Upwards of 95 percent of the light can be directed at the target area of illumination whereas a typical incandescent bulb may be only 60 percent effective. 

In other words, a lot of the light produced by an incandescent bulb does not go to the intended target.

Incandescent bulbs require reflectors, louvers, and/or diffusers to compensate for unnecessary light. Fluorescent bulbs are more energy-efficient than incandescents, but the ballast may consume up to 20 percent of the electrical energy going into the fixture.

Retrofitting LED technology in traditional luminaries is tricky because most fixtures are designed to overcome the limitations of traditional spherical light output. 

Reflectors, cones, masks, shades and diffusers help bend, redirect, or shield the light emitted from incandescent, fluorescent and halogen sources, but it creates unnecessary physical barriers for implementing LED technology. 

Designing specific forward-fit LED-based luminaries can produce several times foot-candles on a given area per watt than other traditional incandescent bulb technologies. 

Because of the directional illumination pattern that LEDs provide the light can be directed to the specific area that needs to be illuminated.

The Light Color

Over the years, fluorescent light bulb manufacturers had some challenges getting users to accept the white color produced by fluorescent technology. 

Because of the limitations of phosphor technology, the fluorescent industry introduced subjective terms such as "cool white" or "warm white" to draw comparisons to incandescent white. 

Not coincidentally, white LED manufacturers face the same challenges since white LED technology is based on phosphor energy. 

To put things in quantitative perspective, LED manufactures have referred to Color Rendering Index (CRI) which is a measurement of a light source's ability to render colors accurately. 

The higher the CRI, the more natural the colors appear, with natural sunlight having a CRI of 100. However, this may not be the best metric for comparing light sources.

But the bigger issue is, the light intensity benchmark for an LED tube lamp is not the watt. 

Traditional LEDs used for simple status indication and displays come in small epoxy packages and their light output is measured in candelas because this is a measurement of direct-view luminous intensity. 

With the recent development of high-power LEDs for illumination purposes, the lux or lumen (one lux is equal to one lumen per square meter) is a more suitable unit of measurement to compare the LED light output to traditional sources because we are more concerned about the volume of light rather than the directional intensity.

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Energy Saving LED Tube Lights

Are you using energy saving LED tube lights?  There are millions of general service fluorescent tube lights in the market place today, until recently these were considered the most energy efficient lighting solution available. 

The downside to this type of lighting is that each tube contains a small amount of mercury vapour, a toxic heavy metal. 

This can provide not just a health risk when the tubes are broken, but can also accumulate in landfills before entering the water table or causing further pollution.

Fluorescent lamps use electricity to excite mercury vapour inside the glass tube and always require a ballast to regulate the flow of power through the lamp. 

A starter is in the circuit to heat the contact ends of the tube that ionizes the mercury vapour creating UV light. The inside of the tube is coated with a phosphor material that glows when exposed to the UV light produced by the mercury inside the fluorescent tube.

Recent developments in SMD (Surface Mount Diode) LED technology have now meant that LED light tubes are now a reality. 

LEDs are a more efficient form of lighting product consisting of small chips of conductive material that release light when a current is applied to them. 

They contain no filaments and can produce up to 25 times more light per watt than conventional light bulbs.

LEDs require far less energy in their manufacture than fluorescent tubes, and only 3% of the energy they will consume over their life expectancy is consumed in their manufacture, and they are also produced from non toxic materials. 

The tubes are made from polycarbonate, a material that is more robust and durable than glass, so accidents will not require special cleanup procedures.

While LED technology is more expensive than existing fluorescents at face value, they will last up to 10 times as long, while consuming 65% less energy. 

In most general purpose lighting applications, the additional cost of the LED technology will more than pay for itself within the first 18 months.

The only drawback is the tighter beam angle of the LEDs, while some tubes are manufactured from a polycarbonate light diffusing material, others have a narrow focus which may not be suitable for replacing existing tubes. 

Many fluorescent fixtures are designed with reflectors that help to distribute the light from the tubes evenly in their intended environment. 

This is a problem similar to what was faced when compact fluorescents began replacing incandescent light bulbs, this problem will soon be overcome and allow faster adoption of this emerging LED tube lights.


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What Are Things You Need To Know About LED Lamps?

A LED lamp or a Light Emitting Diode lamp use light emitting diodes to produce light. These tube lamps are one of the most convenient alternatives for traditional bulbs. 

The amount of light emitted by a single light emitting diode is very small as compared to compact fluorescent lamps and incandescent lamps. 

So, multiple diodes are used for producing more light. A LED lamp operates on the basis of solid state lighting technology. The solid state technology involves the production of light from a solid object and not from vacuum or gas.

Different types of light emitting diodes used in these tube lamps are organic LEDs, polymer LEDs and conventional semiconductor light emitting diodes. 

With the improvement in the diode technology, high power LEDs, with higher lumen output have become very popular. 

High power commercial light emitting diode lamps can emit 7,500 lumens with 100 watts electrical power. Light emitting diodes operate on direct current or DC electrical power. 

They can also operate on standard AC electrical power with the help of external or internal rectifier circuits. Light emitting diodes usually get damaged by functioning at high temperatures. 

So, the LED lamps feature heat management elements, such as cooling fins and heat sinks. These heat management elements provide long service life to the LED light bulbs.

LED light bulbs have a variety of applications. Light emitting diode lamps are used for both special purpose and general lighting. 

These lamps are widely used in commercial buildings, homes, small rooms, hallways, solar-powered gardens, gardening and agriculture industry. Also, they are used as reading lamps, traffic signal lights, bicycle lights, walkway lights and flashlights. 

These lamps are also used as hanging decorative lights. You can use these lights to decorate your home during festivals and special occasions. For instance, you can use string of these lights for decorating your Christmas tree.

These light bulbs are available in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. They have become extremely popular due to their high energy efficiency, high stability, short response time, environment friendliness and cost effectiveness. 

LED lamps have several benefits over the conventional incandescent lamps:

Energy Efficiency: 

According to several reports LED tube lamps consume 50 to 80% less energy as compared to traditional light bulbs. These lamps produce more light with lesser electricity. Further, the efficiency of these lights is not affected by their shape or size.

Long Life Time: 

These lamps have a long life time. These lamps last from 20,000 to 100,000 hours under proper voltage and current. Further, these lamps are very durable, rust proof and mechanically robust.

Further, these lights do not use mercury or any other toxic materials like traditional lamps. These eco-friendly lamps are fully recyclable and do not emit any harmful fumes.

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Why Are People Using LED Light Tubes?

Do you use LED light tubes? The traditional fluorescent tubes have been accepted by customers and the market for a long time. They are widely used for commercial lighting, even for industrial lighting. 

However, fluorescent tubes contain mercy and lead, which is not good for the environment. Besides, efficiency is only 45-60lm/w. In a word, it's not so prefect for the environment and energy.

Recently, LED technology improved quickly. LED (light-emitting-diode) is a semiconductor diode that emits light. 

It contains solid state technology made in Silicon Valley using similar technologies that are used in the latest microprocessors. It's considered as an energy saving and eco-friendly light source.

At present LED tubes are accepted in more and more countries.

What are advantages of LED Light tubes?

1. Energy Saving

In December 2009, efficiency of LED tubes can be 90-100lm/w (transparent cover). It's about 2 times to efficiency fluorescent tube. In 2010, efficiency can be 120lm/w.

2. Eco-friendly

LED does not contain lead or mercury. It's eco-friendly. Now, eco-friendly products are popular in most of countries. LED light tubes are one of them. So, it will be more and more popular.

3. Longer Lifespan

Lifespan of LED is over 50,000 hours. It's 5 times longer than lifespan of fluorescent tube.

4. Colors Choice

Colors of LED can be white, red, blue, green, yellow and so on. If we choose right wavelength, they can be used for plant grow.

5. Dimmable

LEDs which are easier to be dimmable and LED tubes are able to do this.

The only problem is price. As the cost of LED is high, price is over 3 times higher than fluorescent tube. However, LED is a semiconductor diode. Price will be down every year like computers.

Therefore, in the near future, the prices will be much reduced. Efficiency will be over 120lm/w. We believe many countries in Europe and North America can accept it.

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Why Use LED High Bay Light Fixtures

General lighting in rooms or buildings which have high ceilings is usually provided by LED high bay light fixtures. They can be found in many different places such as gyms, garages, storage facilities and warehouses. 

It has been discovered that various types of LED high bay light fixtures can have a definite impact on the functionality of an area and on its appearance. 

Before making a choice you have to consider the kind of lighting a building needs as well as the kind of budge it has for maintenance and operation when taking into consideration the selection of these lights..

It is very important to take into consideration the kind of design each fixture has. LED high bay lighting fixtures usually come in linear or pendant forms. 

The difference is that pendants take up more space and they need a ceiling which is higher in height than the linear fixtures do because they are only a few inches thick. 

So be sure you know exactly the kind of LED light fixture which you require.

Other things which you should take into mind are that there are some LED high bay light fixtures which can be pretty heavy and will need extra support.

Therefore you should make a comparison between your present ceiling configuration and the installation requirements for each light in order to decide which fixture would work best. 

Things that you should know are that traditional high bay fixtures make use of high-intensity discharge (HID) technology while modern fixtures use fluorescent bulbs. 

You must be sure that there is no problem with the warm-up factor at your place of work because when an HID light gets switched on it will take around 10 minutes for it to warm up and provide light.

When it comes to lighting power HID lights have the possibility to provide more light over a greater distance and can be the better choice for rooms which have high ceilings. 

So all you have to do is to select the design which best suits your workplace. These lights can be protected by a wire cage, a lens or they can be left unprotected. 

However keep in mind that protected lights are kept safer from damage especially in work areas where equipment might come close to them. 

On the other hand unprotected lights do have a higher degree of lighting and can be more affordable so they should be the choice when no equipment or no one can get near them.

So make sure you know the kind of lighting you need and the kind of space where it will be set up to be sure that everything goes according to all safety regulations. 

Remember that the last thing you would want is for your LED high bay lights to come crashing down. Get all the information you need and do it right the first time getting adequate lighting just where you need it the most.

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Are LED Lighting Tubes Better?

LED lighting tubes are truly the next generation technology which features numerous benefits not only to consumers for home LED lighting, but also to many businesss premises. 

LED lighting offers such benefits as a higher energy efficiency than CFLs and fluorescents, lower power consumption, lower maintenance costs, longer lifetime (50,000 hours compared to less than 10,000), durability and brighter light output than conventional fluorescent lighting.

Fluorescent lighting contains toxic materials such as mercury which is harmful to environment and human body. Did you know that if you drop or break a fluorescent bulb you must leave the room for 4 hours, due to the toxic materials floating in the air, which could cause respiratory damage, or Asthma in the long run for workers who have to deal with these fixtures daily. 

For quick installation, LED tube lighting can be placed and installed directly into existing fluorescent T5 and T8 sized sockets, you only need to remove the ballast, plug the LED bulbs in, and you're done! Contrary to popular belief, LED light tube is very easy to install in this day and age, and the bulk of LED products are now "plug-and-play" while still offering a slick look with unmatched energy savings.

First of all, LED light tube is more energy efficient than fluorescent lighting due to the high efficacy of LEDs. LEDs for interior lighting have already broken the efficacy record of 100 lumen per watt, while fluorescent lighting only has an efficacy of around 60 lumen per watt. 

LED has a power factor of 0.9, which means most of the power is converted into light, but when fluorescent lighting works, a huge amount of power is converted into heat which will be dispersed finally. LED lighting consumes only 30% energy as fluorescent lighting to deliver the same lumen output.

Secondly, Flexible LED lighting has a much longer lifetime than fluorescent lighting since LED lighting is solid state lighting which is more stable and reliable. LEDs can last over 50,000 hours which means 17 years under normal use. 

Whereas fluorescent lighting only has a lifetime of around 5,000 hours, which means you have to replace them as often. Using LED lighting can greatly save your expenses which are used to buy new light bulbs and pay for the labor.

When it is switched on for hours a day, especially for a long period of time, fluorescent lighting may have some hot spots due to heat it generates, which does not happen to LED lighting. 

These hot spots cause the rest of the light to become dimmer, and quickly results in a dead CFL tube, a perfect reason to switch to LED T8 Tubes or T5 tubes, depending on the socket size. 

Fluorescent lighting / CFL pigtails can cause eyestrain, but LED lighting does not as a result of its uniform and unparalleled balanced light output, and does not flicker or emit a low pitched humming like the earlier fluorescent technology.

In contrast, LED lighting tubes s solid state lighting which does not contain any filaments that could break (like incandescent) or hazardous materials like CFLs. Someone may say that the upfront costs of LED lighting is too high, due to the technology used to achieve such a high lumens per watt (efficacy) rating, it is true. 

However, think about the long term energy savings, and savings you will get from not needing to replace the lights, for up to 5 or 10 times as long, depending if the light replaced was incandescent or fluorescent. Either way, the more high energy halogen, incandescent, or fluorescent lights you replace, the more money you will save every month.

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