A lot has changed (for the better IMHO) with LED based lighting products in the last year. Most of the
innovation has been from China from my observations anyway. The things that the engineering and manufacturing
teams are continually trying to improve upon are 1) the dispersation angle of the available LEDs are too
narrow, and 2) the LED light output per chip needs enhanced, plus 3) incorporating changes to help resolve or
at least improve on issues from #1 without increasing costs to prospective buyers. A possible 4) might be:
Making "plug and play" LED products of a wide variety to allow potential displacement of the older
incandescant, CFLs and T-XX fluorescents as they fail and need replacing. Of course the LED replacement has
to be as bright as what it replaces, which wasn't the case very often not too long ago but now you can get
units that sellers will gaurantee performance and reliability for up to 2 years. You have to pay attention to
the light output per LED and how many of these are included per replacement unit.
I just purchased 2 LED floods that contained 78 LEDs per bulb, anf the LEDs were "3 chip" units that contain 3
LEDs (white in my case...). I have seen up to 5 chip individual LEDs, plus there are also "Luxeon Clones"
that get more output by driving the chips harder and building a heat sink into the product to dissapate the
heat. The floods I bought were clearly marked to be equivilent to a 60 watt halogen in terms of light output,
in practice they seem to be as bright as the others only at a higher color temp. They are noticably "whiter",
ok for my application and I could have purchased a "warm white" unit for roughly the same cost as I recall.
All of the replacements used 110v a.c. although 220v a.c. were available also. The pair cost me 23.00$
including shipping.
To summarize, it seems to me that the "LED Lighting Industry" which includes the big name corporations may
have kept their LED R&D going but no real emphasis on taking the narkets from competing technologies (maybe
because they already have older technology products heavily entrenched in those markets???). However, those
companies with no "conflict of interest" due to being a manufacturer of competing technologies are continuing
to develop at a rate much more focused most notably the chinese companies. These have evolved from a simple
manufacturer of copycat discreet LEDs to developing necessary technologies that allow them the ability to
compete and sometimes offer discreet LEDs with enhancements not available elsewhere, and using these to offer
higher level products that can perform as well as if not better than the older technologies. The slightly
higher entry level prices are easily returned to the buyer in energy savings over the life of the product. The
consumer can buy discreet LEDs, LED replacements for direct replacement of older technologies, and even
complete products like desk lamps, trouble lights, flashlights, etc., from the same supplier via ebay using
paypal. This evolution has transpired mostly in the last year or less. Somehow, I get the feeling that
LEDs, LED technology development, and LED products are poised to capture the ever expanding lighting market
space. regards, Joe.
LED lamps have been used for perhaps ten years or so in Traffic
headlights. So much huha about this light source.... but need patience
n time.....
The lumen package from LED lamps is still quite awhile to go, maybe
require another five years for it to achieve double its present
efficacy level ( efficiency light output against power input of LED
lamp ) of maybe 105 lumens per watt .
Majority of LED lamps are used in facade lighting, i.e general
illumination with pre-programmed DMX-controlled lighting patterns
change of a building.
Of course, for some application, LED lamps are being retrofit for
conventional halogen lamp source.
Heat sink dissipation is still a major area of concern in the context
of low-cost LED products and the problematic situation comes after the
completion of a project. After sales support will then be severly
tested as the symptoms pop up now and then.
So, what you have seen is the re-replacement of LED lights which is
not surprising at all as apparently it does not function as
appropriately as the conventional light source ( Application
Function ). It does not possess the light intensity of the MR16 12V
50W halogen dichroic lamp and maybe found not suitable later.
Some eight years ago, I recalled an upgarding project using LED
lighting in a Food Centre in S`pore and they have to changed it to
conventional PLC compact fluorsecent downlights as the lighting level
was way too low........
LED lighting now is the craze as the average burning hours of life
time is supposed to be 20,000 to 50,0000 hours..... but how
performance-correct it is, time will tell........Quality and average
burning hours ( lifetime ) will defintely be an issue of concern for
most brands, I suppose.....
Many are not willing to pay for the good quality ones, so all have to
live with the lower ones or average ones....
Cheers,
Thomas Lee
[email protected]
