Light and Water
LED technology is so widespread now it is hard to imagine a time without this wonderful technology. Let’s take a step back to see how far its come and a peek into the future.
- 57 years ago an employee of General Electric Nick Holonyak developed the LED light. He stood on the shoulders of giants like Henry Joseph Round who observed that certain semiconductors emit light when an electric current passes through them and Oleg Vladimirovich Lósevwho died at the young age of 39 before he could develop his invention in 1942.
- The average American home has approximately 50 sockets. About 60% of them still contain an inefficient light bulb. Two-dollar, high-quality LED bulbs can fill those sockets and save Americans more than $6 billion a year to light their homes.https://www.energystar.gov/sites/default/files/asset/document/LBR_2017-LED-Takeover.pdf
- The cost of the average homes energy bill to lighting is approx. 10% – this figure is much higher if you look to the demand on A/C units that high heat-producing traditional incandescents have on a home.
- An incandescent lamp converts about 9-10% of the energy fed to it into the light,
whereas LEDs convert nearly 100% of the energy they consume as light. - According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the widespread installation of LED’s
can save 348 TWH of energy by the year 2027. That’s enough energy to power
44 large electric power plants, saving more than $30 billion dollars. - If every American home replaced their five most frequently used light fixtures or the bulbs in them with LED bulbs, we would: Save enough energy to light 33 million homes for a year. Save nearly $5 billion each year in energy costs. Prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 6 million cars.
- LEDs contain no mercury at all. Fluorescent light is produced by passing an electric current through mercury vapor, which generates ultraviolet energy. A phosphor coating on the inside of the bulb transforms the ultraviolet energy into visible light. A single four- foot fluorescent tube contains from 5 to 50 mg. of mercury. When lamps are sent to landfills, or especially when incineration is used as an alternative disposal method, mercury vapors are released that can travel over 200 miles! It is highly toxic to the human nervous system and particularly poisonous to the kidneys. Once absorbed by the body, mercury is distributed by the blood to all tissues of the human body, and it easily crosses the placental barrier; prenatal exposure can lead to a variety of health problems including a severe form of cerebral palsyhttps://www.aircycle.com/articles/mercury-in-lamps-environment
- LED light bulbs contain no dangerous chemicals, allowing you to dispose of them in the same manner as incandescent bulbs and halogen bulbs. Before you toss your old LED bulbs in the trash, consider recycling. Most of the LED bulbs available today are made of materials which can be recycled.
- Due to their compact size, stress-free upkeep, resistance to fracture and single-direction focus, LED’s have the ability to be used in a variety of different products
such as street lights, traffic signals and televisions.
