LED Bulbs on the way to lead in household lighting

08/08/2010

Released on July 29, "Global and China LED industry Report 2009-2010" shows that the global LED market has reached US$10.7 billion in 2010, which is only $7 billion in 2009. Forecast for 2012 is expected to exceed $20 billion.

LEDs are highly energy efficient, contain no mercury and have much longer lifespan than incandescent bulbs. It is supposed to be the rescue to reduce green house gas emissions and reduce electricity consumption in the near future.

The increasing availability of LED for use in household lighting is leading to a change in how the performance of the bulb is evaluated. In their information about LED bulbs, the European Union states that wattage, the traditional means of measuring a bulb's power is no longer meaningful. Instead the EU measures the performance of the lamp in lumens, 1300-1400 lumens are equivalent to a 100Watt (W) incandescent bulb, 920-970 for 75W, 700-750 for a 60W, 410-430 lumens for a 40W and 220-230 lumens are equivalent to a 25W incandescent bulb.

LED light bulbs is currently relatively expensive than traditional ones. The 220 lumen Normal cap white bulb from Philips retails for $35, E-core 500 from Toshiba for around $48. Cree Inc., the LED lighting leader even offers some extremely high performance LED lights for around $140 in US market. Manufacturers often argue that consumers should not only look at the price but also consider the lifepan and energy savings comprehensively.

Despite the long lifespan, when LED bulbs are exhausted, they can't be handled the same way as incandescent bulbs. The EU are recommending some standards on how these bulbs would be disposed, perhaps they should be collected to a dedicated collection bin for waste electronic equipment.

Energy inefficient bulbs are being phased out from EU member countries from September 2009, and EU also plans to replace all incandescent bulbs with energy saving LED.