Q: What is LED Lighting?

LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. The diode comes in the form of a computer chip on a circuit board. The properties of the diode cause it to generate light when an electric current passes through it. Depending on the chip and materials used, different colors in the color spectrum can be created. Prior to the technological revolution of the 90s and the rapid advancement of the microchip, the LED was used only in small-scale applications such as indicator lights.

The same advancements that spurred the computer to reach dizzying levels of efficiency have also done the same for the LED. Just as computers have become faster and cheaper, LED lights have become brighter, smaller, less expensive, and more sophisticated.

LEDs are solid state technology. That means there is no glass bulb, no pressurized gases, no mercury and no burning filament. With the traditional bulb, 90% of its energy is transmitted as heat while light is a mere by-product of electrifying the metal coil inside the bulb.

From the indicator light on your VCR to the light fixture above your head, LEDs have come a long way in becoming the go-to solution for building and home illumination.

Q: What’s the difference between UL listing and ETL listing?

UL and ETL are both what is called Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories (NRTL). NRTLs are in place to provide independent safety and quality certifications on products. Electrical appliances typically require their certification (especially 240V appliances). UL develops the testing standards and tests to them. ETL tests to UL standards. In order for an inspector to sign off on permitted installation for an EVSE, the National Electric Code requires the EVSE be NRTL listed (in the US that is ETL or UL).

LED Waves, Inc. does use both laboratories; the selection of which laboratory depends on which company provides the best value for their service that we can then in turn pass on to our customers.

Q: Are E26 and E27 light bulb bases interchangeable?

Yes. The E26 is the standard 120 Volt American base. The E27 is the European variant and is rated at 220 Volts. E26 is 26 mm and the E27 is 27 mm diameter. However, an E26 bulb can fit in E27 base and an E27 bulb can fit in E26 base without problem. The sockets / bulbs are interchangeable except for the voltage rating. Therefore, LED E26 bulbs that are universal line-voltage can be used in both E26 and E27 sockets.

Q: Why are LED lights so expensive?

Even considering the energy savings and replacement costs, LED lights come with a fair amount of sticker shock. Part of this is because they’re so new; more research and development is being poured into this field than any other lighting technology. As our understanding of this technology increases prices will continue to fall. For example, early LEDs were mounted on a sapphire substrate. Today’s LED chip designers are experimenting with various silicon substances to replace expensive sapphire while not compromising performance.

Still, it is unlikely that LED lights will ever break the price point of standard incandescent lights since more work goes into the components. Light-emitting diodes are not based simply on fire or a heated filament in a glass like older technology; each lamp is the product of soldering together a number of parts – a heat sink, driver, circuit board and LED chips engineered for specific lighting applications. Think of an LED light fixture as an appliance rather than a disposable object.

LED Waves happens to build products exclusively with high-quality, name brand LEDs. These chips reflect more years of research in the field, and the fact that companies like Cree and Nichia have lasted so long amid other fly-by-night LED operations speaks to the dependability of these finished products. If an LED bulb promises 5 years of useful life, shouldn’t its chip manufacturer have been in business at least that long?

Q: What are IP ratings (i.e IP65, IP67, etc.?)

A two-digit number established by the International Electro Technical Commission, is used to provide an Ingress Protection rating to a piece of electronic equipment or to an enclosure for electronic equipment. The first digit indicates protection against ingress of solid objects. The second digit indicates protection against ingress of liquids. For more details on the protection level of each digit, please refer to this page.

Q: What are the advantages of using LEDs over traditional lighting?

The LED lights of today match or surpass the performance of all incumbent lighting technologies. LEDs operate on significantly less energy than incandescent lights, which are wildly inefficient. They also last longer (average 10 years of normal use) and are more durable because they are solid state, shock-proof, and can be housed safely in plastic instead of glass. LED wall washers and spotlights are DMX controllable to create color and light intensity effects which cannot be achieved with other technologies.

At roughly half the efficiency, a CFL almost stacks up against an LED bulb yet still comes up short in terms of reliability. Fluorescent lights rely on chemical reactions with gases (including the neurotoxin mercury) contained within a fragile bulb. These reactions are adversely affected by upside-down installations. Furthermore, the ballast of a CFL is not designed to handle rapid on-off cycles – all of which explain why so many people are disappointed by these bulbs.

The bottom line is that LEDs are easier and safer to use than all previous lighting technologies. And LEDs will save you money by consuming less power, requiring fewer replacements, and generating much less heat, which in turn combine to result in lower cooling costs.

Q: How do I compare my current lighting with LED lighting so I can make intelligent decisions?

In the past, we have generally referred to the brightness of a bulb in terms of its wattage, or the amount of power that the bulb uses (or energy it consumes). Because of the disparity between incandescent and LED technologies, we have to change our language a bit in order to account for progress. When referring to brightness, we now find ourselves comparing lumens (see Q: What is a lumen?).

However, when comparing LEDs with incandescents, it gets a little trickier because the typical incandescent projects light in 360 degrees – at the ceiling, within the fixture, everywhere – not just where you need it. Because LED lights are directional, they focus all the light they generate exactly where you want it, and nowhere that you don’t.

Another consideration is color temperature. In the past, this has been very difficult to control because you basically got whatever color your particular bulb produced. Typically this was a Warm White (about 3000K) if you had an incandescent bulb, and a Cool White (around 5000K) if you had a fluorescent bulb. Because the LED is an intelligent, solid-state technology, we are able to produce LEDs that not only produce Warm White and Cool White, but are able to produce up to 16 million different colors, each a different temperature.

Q: With all the buzz around compact fluorescent bulbs, should I skip this step towards efficient lighting altogether and move directly to a LED bulb?

Compact fluorescents are great bulbs but they lack all the advantages of LEDs; namely size and environmentally friendliness because they contain mercury, do not last as long, and they degrade with rapid on-off cycles and temperature fluctuations.

Q: What are lumens?

A lumen is a unit that measures luminous flux, or the total amount of visible light emitted by a source. If a light source emits one candela (approximately one candle’s worth) of luminous intensity into one steradian (a solid angle – picture light waves emitting from a source in a cone shape), the total luminous flux emitted into that steradian is one lumen. The lumen can be thought of casually as a measure of the total amount of visible light emitted. For example, a standard 100 Watt incandescent bulb emits about 1500 lumens.

Q: What is Lux?

Lux is lumen per square meter. The difference between the lux and the lumen is that the lux takes into account the area over which the luminous flux is spread. 1000 lumens, concentrated into an area of one square meter, lights up that square meter with an illuminance of 1000 lux. The same 1000 lumens, spread out over ten square meters, produces a dimmer illuminance of only 100 lux.

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LED Lighting Color Rendering Index

Color render refers to a different spectral light source irradiate to the same color object, presented the characteristics of distinctive color. Usually represent by led panel light color rendering index (Ra). The higher the color rendering index, the better the color rendering properties.

The level of light represent object called color rendering, also known as color reproduction extent, high color rendering light source with better color reproduction, and the color is closer to the natural colors, low color rendering light with poor color reproduction, and the color with more deviation.

Principally, artificial light is identical with natural light, people’s eyes are able to identify the colors correctly, of course, it’s depending on the location and purpose of the lighting.

CRI is the relationship between object true color and standard light source. The determination of the Ra value is defined in the DIN6169, which 8 colors are compared between universal light source and the testing light source. The smaller color difference indicates that the color of the measured light source color is better.

Light source Ra value is 100 means things appear in its light source are consistent with the standard light.

CRI Level General application

90-100 1A used in places require accuracy and contrast color.

80-89 1B used in places require correct color judgment.

60-79 2 Used in moderate color rendering places

40-59 3 used in places require lower LED high bay lighting CRI.

20-39 4 used in places no specific requirement.

Here list the CRI (Ra) for the common used Light source:

Incandescent 97

Daylight fluorescent 80-94

White fluorescent 75-85

Warm white fluorescent 80-90

Tungsten halogen lamps 95-99

High-pressure mercury lamp 22-51

High pressure sodium lamp 20-30

Metal halide lamps 60-65

Sodium thallium indium lamp 60-65

The dysprosium lights more than 85

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4 keys in LED Outdoor Light Design

LED outdoor lighting design should comply with the latest outdoor lighting technical specification,

and the standard of urban road lighting design.

1, Working Enviroment

LED outdoor lighting, due to the working environment is poor. It will directly meet the wind blow,

the rain, the sun. And the sun ultraviolet radiation, the temperature difference between day and

night, dust. The design should fully consider the impact of these factors.

2, Material and Heat Disspation
Shell and heat sink design as a whole, which is used to solve the heat dissipation of LED, this way

is better. Generally choose aluminum or aluminum alloy, copper or copper alloy, and other alloy

thermal conductivity is good. Cooling with air convection cooling, wind cooling, heat pipe cooling.

Choose what kind of operating mode, has a direct impact on the cost of the lighting, should be

overall considered, and choose the best scheme to form a complete set of product.

Chimney design material selection is also crucial. Currently have transparent organic glass, PC

material. Traditional chimney is transparent glass. Choose what kind material of chimney associated

with design products’ positioning. In general, the chimney of outdoor lighting, the best is glass.

It is the best choice for high-grade lighting. Transparent material such as plastic, organic glass,

is good for chimney of indoor lighting. Used for outdoor life is bad. Outdoor sunlight, ultraviolet

rays, dust, chemical gas chimney aging, the change in the temperature difference between day and

night. All these factors will shorten service life. The contamination is not easy to clean, reduce

chimney transparency, and affect the light output.

3, LED Chip Package
Current LED outdoor lighting (mainly street light) is using 1 w high power LEDs in series, in

parallel to assemble. This method is of high thermal resistance is relatively advanced packaging

technology products, it is not easy to make high quality lamps and lanterns. Or it is 30 W, 50 W and

even larger modules assembled, in order to achieve the required power. These LED, package material

useful epoxy resin, use silica gel. The difference between them: Epoxy resin heat resistance isWatch Full Movie Online Streaming Online and Download

poorer. Silica gel is good heat resistance.
Adopt the overall packaging chip and heat sink is a good choice. Or the aluminum substrate multichip

packaging, again through the phase change materials or heat dissipation silicon grease and radiator

connected. Make product heat resistance one to two way more conducive to heat dissipation than with

the LED device assembly product. Use LED module’s lighting, module substrate generally is copper

base plate. Its connection with outer radiator,  use good heat dissipation silicon grease, can

guarantee the copper substrate heat outside in a timely manner to the radiator. If the processing is

not good, easy to make heat accumulation caused by module chip temperature rise too high. Multi-chip

packaging suitable for general lighting, module packaging for compact space limited LED light.

4, Heat Sink Design
Heat sink is one of the key component. Its shape, volume, heat dissipation surface area should be

designed to the point. If heat sink is too small, the LED working temperature is too high, affecting

the luminous efficiency and life span. If heat sink is too big, consumption materials more to

increase the product cost and weight, make the product competitive power. Heat sink design should

take follows into consideration.
1) Definite the nessary heat dissipation rate of LEDs.
2) Design the heat sink with some parameters: metal specific heat, coefficient of thermal

conductivity of metal, the chip thermal resistance, heat sink thermal resistance and ambient air

thermal resistance, etc.
3) Determine the type of heat dissipation, natural convection cooling, wind cooling, heat pipe

cooling, and other way of heat dissipation.) From a cost comparison: natural convection is the

lowest cost, strong breeze cooling medium, the heat pipe radiator construction cost is higher, the

jet cooling cost is the highest.
4) Determine the LED lighting highest working temperature.
5) Calculate the volume of the heat sink, heat dissipation area. And to determine the shape of the

heat sink.
6) Make complete lighting, work eight hours, at room temperature is 39 ℃ to 40 ℃ . Test it whether

meet the cooling requirements. If test calculation is not correct, cannot meet the conditions of

use, have to recalculate and adjust the parameters.
7) Heat sink and lamp chimney seal to be waterproof, dust proof. Fill anti-aging rubber or silicone

rubber mats between lamp chimney and heat sink, with stainless steel bolts, to be sealed waterproof,

dust proof.

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