led lights advantages and disadvantages

LED lighting is just recently beginning to appear in the home market. But it already involves some advantages over traditional incandescent technology, or even over fluorescents.

The main disadvantage is that LED lighting isn’t yet cost-efficiency for many uses.

LED fixtures

Led Fixture LEDs work best with proper fixtures. LEDs require a driver, which can be built into the fixture. Alternatively, LED lamps can incorporate plug-in transformers, allowing them to run on existing standard 120 volt AC fixtures (with a power loss of around 15%).

See: Light fixtures

Efficacy and Quality

LED lighting can be much more efficient than incandescent or even fluorescent lighting. LEDs can reduce energy costs up to 75% compared to incandescent lighting. And they can last up to 50,000 hours, that is, 30 to 50 times longer than incandescent lighting, and about 2-5 times longer than fluorescents.

But be aware: only qualified LEDs will grant that efficiency. There are poor designed and low-efficient LEDs in the market, and some claims are false.

See: LED quality

Other advantages

LED lights are extremely damage-resistant (much more than compact fluorescents and incandescent bulbs), and never flicker and will turn on instantly.

They are also more environmentally-friendly (they do not contain mercury…) and can be fully dimmable or respond to motion and daylight.

Dimming is common in some indoor models, while automatic daylight shut-off and motion sensors are available on some LED outdoor models.

Their directional distribution of light can also be an advantage for uses like interior task lighting.

Large warranties (a minimum of three years, in the case of qualified lamps) are also an advantage.

LED prices

The major current disadvantage of the LEDs is that they are much more expensive than incandescent and fluorescent lights.

The scale of production is still insufficient to provide lower prices, and most lighting suppliers do not sell them yet.

Prices between $25 and $60 are common for retrofit night lights and small lamps. These prices are likely to decrease over the next years, but meanwhile they will limit the use of LEDs.

See: LED prices and Uses

Other disadvantages

Other LED disadvantages include:

- Sensitivity to heat: high heat reduces both the lifespan and the light quality.

- The directional nature of the LED lighting: LEDs cast light in one direction with a relatively narrow angle (see image at the top of this page), which is an advantage for some uses but also a disadvantage in situations where a broader lighting is necessary (ambient lighting, for instance); reflectors, lenses or designs combining a set of LEDs may be needed to get that broader lighting.