Led lights have been around for a few years now. Not very long but long enough to have garnered a distasteful reputation. But is this reputation justified? The answer from a person who makes his living in the LED world is unfortunately yes. Light Energy Designs started as an LED Christmas light company but very early on there was a great demand for the “light of the future”. It was obvious that we needed to find LEDs for everyday life. The task of finding a high quality LED light was arduous, time consuming, expensive and a headache. We interviewed manufacturers, tested products and spoke to consumers. The consumers(and I was one of them) all had similar problems with LEDs, it was our job to find solutions.

1) They Are Too Expensive: This is easily the number one problem, however it is not quite true. There are many relatively inexpensive LED lights on the market, you just don’t want to buy them. Since price is always an important issue, we inspected the less expensive lights first. The reason why they were so cheap is because they were junk, pure and simple. They put out an odd light, they got hot and stopped working, they never worked to begin with, they came in pieces and were not covered by any warranty etc.

At that point we decided to take a look at the highest quality, best designed LEDs. Beautiful, consistent, bright lights that were durable too. We found a manufacturer(U.S.A.) that had almost everything we were looking for in an LED. After doing the math, we found we could bring these LEDs to the market for around $120.00 per bulb and great as they were no one would buy them. Why? They are too expensive!

We had looked at the Yugo version and the Ferrari version of LEDs, what we needed was the Ford or Toyota Camry version. Long lasting, well made, dependable, consistent light color and output but also priced well. It took three years to find! Proudly we brought these to market in the $40-$70 range only to be told they are still too expensive. Clearly some teaching had to be done about how long life spans and energy efficiency can save a person money in the long run. For example one of our LED Par 20s can save a person around $336 over the lifespan of the bulb.

2) They Breakdown To Easily: Led lights have a high incidence of sudden unexplained failure. One minute, they are shining bright, the next all you have is a $60 paperweight. This is extremely odd since almost every LED manufacturer makes claims of life spans of at least 30,000 hours. There are basically only two reasons for this sudden failure: voltage spikes and heat.

Voltage spikes(really should be called energy spikes) usually need to be frequent or excessive to cause LED failure. An example of frequent would be in mountain towns where numerous power outages cause increased generator use. Direct lightening strikes and malfunctions caused by power companies are examples of excessive voltage spikes, both of which are very rare.

The main cause of LED failure is heat. Nothing kills an LED faster than heat buildup. This is why most LED lights have a heat sink. A heat sink is a term for a component or assembly that transfers heat generated within a solid material to a fluid medium, such as air or a liquid. A heat sink generally uses its extended surfaces (usually aluminum alloy fins) to increase the surface area in contact with the air. The heat sinks can be so elaborate and large that it is obvious that they cannot be sold separately but must come as part of a unit. The problem with most LEDs with heat sinks is that they are then generally placed in a recessed can. Unfortunately this enclosed space then holds in the heat that the heat sink is trying to bleed away.

We came across an interesting idea that allows for the heat to be dissipated with far greater efficiency. These LED Par lights have a fan built in to the base. The fan is the very same one that is built into IBM lap top computers and is rated at 70,000 hours. The other advantage that the fan gives you, is that it allows for a direct replacement for your old incandescent lights without the need for replacing any of the housing components. It’s as easy as screwing in a light bulb.

3) The Light Color Is “Weird”: This is a twofold complaint, light color consistency and a low CRI. CRI or color rendering index is a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reproduce the colors of various objects faithfully in comparison with an ideal or natural light source. For example picture how pale people look under fluorescent light compared to being in sunlight. To counter this use only LEDs with a CRI of 70 or higher.

The second complaint is light color consistency. When you order 12 lights you are expecting them all to put out the same color light. LED manufacturing is not an exact science, for this reason each LED is tested for color and light output. Once tested they are sorted into different shades, warm white, soft white, pure white etc. Unfortunately the range of shades within “warm white” can be large and very noticeably different. In order to get a consistent uniform color, some companies pays a premium to have the lights sorted again based on their color on the Kelvin scale. This means to the naked eye all of the warm white will look identical.

4) They Are All Made In China: I understand this complaint even though it is not quite true. The gold standard in LED lighting is an American company based out of North Carolina. Another great brand is a Japanese company, Nichea, which is just as good but at half the cost. This being said there is a tremendous amount of LED lights coming out of China and a great many of them have issues. Patent stealing, inhumane working conditions, companies changing ownership and names to avoid warranties and lawsuits. This is precisely why it is wise to go with a known US or local company. They will act as a buffer, allowing you the peace of mind to purchase products knowing you can go to them with any problems.

5) They Don’t Put Out Enough Light: There are two main reasons for dim LEDs. The most obvious is that you are using low powered LEDs instead of high powered LEDs. Low power LED lights use 30-60 small 5 millimeter LEDs, the same ones found in our Christmas LEDs. These are tightly packed together and give off a fair amount of light. They have their uses but are just not designed to illuminate a large room. High powered LEDs use a single large chip and are easily equivalent in lumens to incandescent lights and CFLs.

The second most likely reason for dim bulbs is that you got scammed. As stated above, LED manufacturers sort their LEDs for light output, the better companies pay more for higher quality lights. This does not mean that the dim LEDs are thrown away, quite the opposite, these are sold but at a much lower price. The same companies that buy cut rate LEDs will also use inferior secondary components and out of date designs. Where they do not go cheap is in advertising expenditures and the use of top of the line packaging. Thus it is sometimes very difficult to tell a good LED company from a bad one.

I draw attention to these complaints not in any way to scare people off of using LEDs. But rather to educate the public that there are reputable companies who are willing to find solutions to these valid complaints. Every problem that is faced and overcome makes the LED that much better.

Author Bio: Peter Meredith is vice president of sales and marketing of Light Energy Designs. Five years of complete immersion in the world LED light bulbs has given him an insider’s view of this new and ever changing technology.To see the latest in LED lights go to www.lightenergydesigns.com

Category: Home Management
Keywords: LED light bulbs, led par 20, led lights