Overview of benefits
LEDs not only offer a variety of new opportunities, they also sometimes require new ways of thinking about lighting. A series of press releases touting successes in this field has time and time again drawn the popular press into speculation about when the new "semi-conductor lamps" will crowd out the familiar style of lamps. The assumption that LEDs will eventually replace classic lamps is not unrealistic. Yet for now their place is much more in supplementary applications, particularly those that previously required very difficult or expensive solutions.
LEDs and hence LED modules combine many advantages. These explain their success in the development of new applications and for use with conventional lighting tasks.
Economic benefits
The very long life span of up to 50,000 hours means that for most applications the lamps in a lighting system are effectively entirely maintenance free. The maintenance costs for the lighting system are reduced.
The high efficiency of coloured - and down the road white as well - LEDs means lower energy consumption. Energy costs sink.
Benefits for design, architecture and light design
Coloured light can be created directly and effectively. It offers a high degree of colour saturation. The palette of available colours is very broad--not least because all possible colour tones can also be mixed.
There are LEDs with high-quality white light - created through additive colour mixing (RGB mixing) or in a blue LED coated with luminous matter (luminescence conversion). Latest development: LEDs with warm white light (3,2000K colour temperature).
LEDs have no UV or IR radiation in their spectrum. Hence no stress is put upon even sensitive objects, allowing close-in illumination. The diminutive design allows for very compact lamps. Voluminous reflectors are no longer needed.
Technical benefits
- LEDs offer high functional security.
- LEDs are simple to dim from a technical standpoint--in the entire range from 0 to 100 percent.
- Colour guidance using RGB colour mixing is also not technically complicated.
- LEDs are shock and vibration-proof.
- They turn on immediately, allowing for wear-free switching.
- LEDs can be used to created bundled light with higher radiant intensity.
- Because LEDs can be run on extra-low voltage or protection low voltage (even during turn-on), they make excellent failsafe systems.
Benefits for the environment
The low energy consumption by coloured - and down the road white as well - LEDs reduces the energy consumption for operation and cooling.
The long service lives of LEDs also means fewer decommissioned lamps being created.
One important environmental aspect of exterior lighting: The orientation sense in nocturnal insects is not disrupted by LED lights. The animals react almost negligibly to its spectral composition.
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