Little by little, LED bulbs begin to prevail in houses and businesses. Discover the truths and painful lies lamps and LED bulbs.

We tend to take as truths data that are opinions, marketing, or simply have become outdated. In the case of LED bulbs, their technological evolution and the reduction of manufacturing costs have changed in just two years.

This also applies to its advantages. It is true that a quality LED bulb for more light with the same consumption as a standard and lasts longer. But in recent years LED bulbs have proliferated at very cheap prices, with lower manufacturing quality. Not all LED bulbs give lighter, nor last longer.

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We will try to clarify some important aspects to reveal the truths and lies about LED lamps and bulbs. It is convenient to know them because the conventional ones are going to disappear:

How do LED bulbs work?

An LED lamp consists of LEDs, that is, light-emitting diodes. These diodes do not emit a very powerful light, so it is necessary to gather many LEDs to match a classic bulb.

The key to its evolution was the invention of the blue LED (its creators received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014), which when mixed with the yellow color of the high intensity white light that has allowed the use of LEDs as the components of traditional light bulbs.

Truths about LED bulbs

• LED bulbs are more environmentally friendly: It’s true. They do not contain any mercury like fluorescents do, so they do not emit waste and pollute as much as their predecessors. They consume between 70 and 80% less than incandescent bulbs and 30% less than fluorescent bulbs. In fact, in similar conditions LED lamps consume much less than their rivals. In this table you can see the consumption, for the same light power:
• They are more resistant: They are usually made of plastic, and do not use filaments or fluorescent material, so in fact they are a bit more resistant to falls.
• They do not emit magnetic fields or UV rays, they are more beneficial for health: LED bulbs do emit magical fields, but much smaller than fluorescent or incandescent ones. And they do not emit UV rays. Although it is not proven that these emissions in conventional bulbs affect health.
• They produce more light pollution: LED lights fade more quickly through the atmosphere, but their luminous flux is more direct and constant, so you can direct the light much better and therefore reduce light pollution, if installed well. But, using them property can be a significant improvement.

What influences the lifespan of LED bulbs?

A LED bulb has a lifespan of up to 100,000 hours, ten times more than a fluorescent bulb. At least that’s what the theory says. The reality is that it depends on many conditions.

Temperature

The factor that most influences the durability of a LED bulb is its interior temperature. A lamp of this type usually has dozens of LEDs inside the glass or transparent plastic housing, so it reaches a high indoor temperature. As more heat accumulates inside the LEDs, less useful life, because LEDs tend to produce electrical faults at high temperatures. An example of a light bulb with dissipation:

It is true that today technology has improved, and no such radical dissipation is required, but it is important to verify that the LED lamp uses some method to let the heat escape, if we want it to last as long as the box promises.

Despite everything, they are the least heated. 70% of its energy is converted into heat, compared to 80% of fluorescent lamps and 90% of incandescent lamps.

Number of LEDs

Most LED bulbs use dozens of small light-emitting diodes to get the lumens needed to light a room. These diodes have connections that are delicate, so as more diodes have the bulb, more likely that one will be damaged, within the same brand. With different brands, the quality of manufacturing is more important. Even so, a LED bulb can still work perfectly even if some diodes are damaged, although logically it will emit less light.

Manufacturing quality

It is another important factor in the life expectancy of an LED bulb. We are talking about a technology that needs a small transformer to convert alternating current into DC, and a driver or power supply to get the right voltage needed by the diodes, in addition to the heat dissipation system, and the connections of the dozens of diodes:

• The diodes themselves need high purity semiconductor materials, which are not easy or cheap to obtain. As the purity decreases, the probability of LED diode failures increases.
• It is a more complex technology than a traditional light bulb. If the quality of the components is not good any of them could be damaged before time.

Environmental conditions

The life cycle of LED bulbs, as with any other measurement of any product, is calculated in perfect conditions of temperature, humidity, pressure, etc., and that rarely occurs in reality. If you use the product with more heat or colder, it gets wet or there is too much moisture, logically its life cycle will be shorter. It is the same reason why your Wi-Fi does not reach the 50 meters promised by your router’s manual. There are always more walls and obstacles than in the manufacturer’s measurement tests …

The conclusion we can draw is that, by the technology itself, LED lamps require a minimum of quality components, manufacturing, semiconductor materials, and heat dissipation, so that their consumption, light output and life cycle, correspond to what they promise. It is another example of how cheap, sometimes, can be expensive.

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