The Market

LEDs are the key technology for highly cost-effective, energy-efficient, next-generation illumination for virtually everything from appliances to major building retrofits to new construction. However, LEDs have historically been used as “points of light” in non-illumination applications such as panel indicators. Moreover, the lighting market is highly fragmented — LEDs simply can’t become mainstream if every LED lighting implementation requires a custom solution.

Roadmap to the Future

For LEDs to realize their potential in lighting applications, several things need to happen:

Standardization:

Standard LED-based platforms need to be introduced and adopted by the market—similar to the standardization of traditional light bulbs. These can, in turn, be customized for specialized applications.

Technology improvements:

  • Optimized thermal management
  • Uniform electrical systems that are compatible with existing electrical systems
  • Improved optics and design for the “human factors” of LED-based lighting—color, consistency, and viewability
  • Predictable reliability for long product life
  • Manufacturing improvements:
  • Automation of key processes to achieve Six Sigma quality levels

 

Why LED Solid-State Lighting is a Better Light Source

Longest Life

Solid-state LED lighting lasts much longer than incandescent, fluorescent or halogen bulbs. After 11 continuous years of use, the LED still works, although after this long it will only be about half as bright. By comparison, with continuous use, the incandescent will completely fail after three months, the halogen after six months, and the fluorescent after 35 months.

LEDs will outlive nearly any application they go into. This reduces—or even eliminates—maintenance and materials costs associated with replacing bulbs. It also makes it possible for you to design light into an application in hard-to-reach places, because the LED will never need to be changed. Solid-state lighting (SSL) is the only permanent lighting solution.

Most Efficient Light Source

LEDs emit light in a half-spherical pattern; incandescent bulbs emit light in a full-spherical pattern—much of the incandescent light is lost before it gets to the target. Adding a lens to an LED further focuses the light pattern onto the target.

Because the LED light is more focused, it sends more light to the target. LEDs send 72 percent more light than incandescent bulbs and 24 percent more than compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). And LEDs start out with five times more light per watt than an incandescent. When you combine the focused light pattern with the higher light output, LEDs provide over 5X more light per watt than incandescent or halogen bulbs.


Most Environmentally Friendly Light Source
For the same amount of light, SSL LEDs consume less than 10 watts of power compared to the 60 watts consumed by incandescent bulbs. LED lighting can dramatically reduce global power consumption.
In addition, unlike other light sources, LEDs contain no mercury or other gasses and emit no ultraviolet rays or infrared heat. They also reduce landfill waste—they last virtually forever, so they don’t need to be thrown out and replaced.

SSL Delivers the Shortest Payback Period

Because LEDs last so long and use so little energy, their cost can be recovered more quickly than any other lighting solution. For example, think of all the lights used in an office building for landscaping, parking structures, night lighting, doorways, hallways, offices, and more. If all of these lights were converted to solid-state LED lighting, the building owner would save not only on energy costs, but also on all the labor and materials costs associated with continuously replacing burnt-out bulbs.

Design Flexibility

LEDs offer enormous opportunities for lighting designers to innovate:

  • Precision illumination
  • Infinite colors
  • Moisture control
  • Small size
  • Varied form factors



The Art of LEDs

As is often the case with cutting-edge technology, there is as much art as science required for a significant shift. The Art of LEDs™ requires an intimate understanding of many dimensions, ranging from technology and the resulting lighting systems, to industry standards, to the aesthetic needs of the lighting industry, to best practices in automated manufacturing. Few companies have this broad experience and expertise.

OptoElectronix

OptoElectronix is the leader in The Art of LEDs — the conception, design, and manufacture of cutting-edge, standardized, highly efficient LED-based lighting. We bring together many decades of unique expertise and experience in LED systems, an intimate knowledge of the lighting industry, and a thorough understanding of the manufacturing disciplines and requirements of both.