From the category archives:

Technology

LED Tube Lights – Not Ready for Prime Time?

January 25, 2010

I’ve been reading the “Summary of Results: Round 9 of Product Testing,”(warning – this link opens a PDF file) by the US Department of Energy’s Solid-State Lighting CALiPER Program. If you are interested in the current state of LED lighting products, it makes for some fascinating reading. One big concern I have had both [...]

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LED Tube Light Products We Would Like to See – Purpose-Built Fixtures

January 18, 2010

In a recent post, I described how to retrofit a fluorescent lighting fixture to support LED tube lights, and in another post I explained in detail why this is necessary. Now, since LED tube lights have been on the market for at least three years now, one might expect that at least one fluorescent [...]

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Tube Lights: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know (But Were Afraid to Ask)

January 8, 2010

Introduced in 1938, the fluorescent bulb was the first major lighting advance to achieve widespread commercial adoption following the 1905 introduction of the tungsten incandescent bulb.  Fluorescent bulbs represented a huge increase in efficiency and operating life over incandescent lamps, enabling cooler, brightly lit offices, factories, and schools, as well as home kitchens and baths. [...]

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Electricity Savings with LED Tube Lights

January 6, 2010

How much electricity can you expect to save by installing LED tube lights?  Well, it depends, of course, on what kind of fluorescent bulbs you are replacing, whether there was an electronic or magnetic ballast and the rated wattage of the replacement bulb or bulbs, but you are guaranteed to use less electricity than is [...]

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Fluorescent Lighting Safety – Why LED Lights Are the Better Choice

January 4, 2010

Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) along with more traditional fluorescent lamps are now being aggressively marketed as environmentally friendly due to their reduced electricity consumption. Indeed, widespread replacement of incandescent bulbs with CFLs will greatly reduce electricity demand; however, there are safety issues that ultimately contribute to making LED lighting the superior choice. Understanding [...]

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How LED Light Bulbs Are Made

January 3, 2010

One-hundred-and-thirty years ago, Thomas Edison completed the first successful sustained test of the incandescent light bulb. With some incremental improvements along the way, Edison’s basic technology has lit the world ever since. This is about to change. We are on the cusp of a semiconductor-based lighting revolution that will ultimately replace Edison’s [...]

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Considerations When Purchasing LED Light Bulbs

January 3, 2010

1. While the initial cost per bulb is still high, the total lifetime cost of an LED light bulb is actually much lower than that of equivalent incandescent and CFL bulbs. Taking into consideration energy costs as well as time and resources required to replace shorter-lived incandescent and CFL bulbs, an LED bulb that lasts [...]

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What Are LED Light Bulbs?

December 30, 2009

So, the first question many of you may have is what are LED lights are and what makes them special?
LED stands for light-emitting diode.  LEDs are actually semiconductors (just like computer chips) that emit energy in the form of light when electricity is passed through them. They are doped or injected with certain chemicals that [...]

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