How We’ve Been Tricked With LED Lights to ‘Save Energy’

Despite the huge boom in LED lights around the world, all that glitters is not gold, and we might not actually be saving as much on our bills as we thought.

As we all know, an excellent energy alternative that replaced traditional light bulbs was VEL. LED bulbs are very energy efficient but retain the appearance of an incandescent bulb.

And technically LED bulbs are not light bulbs: LED stands for Light Emitting Diode.. These are tiny semiconductors (diodes) wrapped in plastic to protect the elements and focus light. light.

When we talk about the “traditional light bulb,” we’re talking about the incandescent light bulb, which has been around since Thomas Edison patented his invention in 1879. light bulbs They have threads that glow, releasing heat and light when energy flows through them.

LED bulbs, on the other hand, contain electrons that create photons: light that we can see. Photons emit almost no heat. LED lights also require much less energy to produce the same brightness as incandescent bulbs and last much longer.

LED bulbs use 75% less energy than traditional lighting. At low power levels the difference is even greater. However, today we are not here to talk about the advantages of LEDs compared to lightning traditional.

Today’s topic is about how the LED boom has made us all go crazy and completely change the lighting in our homes, businesses and all types of establishments, but really We are only increasing consumption.

Despite the efficiency of LEDs, we may not be saving as much as we thought.

According to consulting firm IHS Markit, LED bulbs consume much less energy per lumen produced. LED lighting uses on average 40% less energy than fluorescent bulbs and 80% less than incandescent bulbs to produce the same amount of light.

The big problem comes when we make big changes with this new thing and start lighting our rooms, whatever they are, with more light than we really need. Lighting has now become more economical, but we are overusing these new forms.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, used photographs from space to show that We’re using more lighting than ever. The artificially illuminated surface of the Earth at night increases in brightness and extent. Of course, a picture is worth a thousand words here.

“While the primary goal of the lighting revolution is to reduce energy consumption, this goal can be undermined by the rebound effect of increased energy consumption in response to lower lighting costs.”they explain.

We may be fighting air pollution, but now we must add a new enemy to the battle: light pollution. And of course, logically, for manufacturers this is a bottomless pit of profits that they are not ready to give up.

To this we must add the “problem” of tolerance for playing with the values ​​of one’s products. To understand, tolerance in terms of measurement is the difference between the maximum and minimum size of acceptable errors.

European light bulb tests allow tolerance threshold 10% (there may be a gap of up to 10% between stated and reality)This means that a light bulb rated at 600 lumens might actually be 540 lumens, although of course they will charge you more.

Indeed, it is also necessary to take into account the service life of the light bulbs, since manufacturers promise more than 1000 hours of operation of incandescent lamps, although there are some that have been in use for 120 years.

LED lamp manufacturers such as Philips guarantee their LED lamps for 15,000 effective hours of use and 20,000 starts. But not all manufacturers have the same guarantees.

Here at ComputerHoy, we’ve seen other brands of LED bulbs burn out in our homes well before those 15,000 hours of use, so the supposed savings are called into question.

Another one of the big problems that benefits manufacturers and electrical companies.

To all this, as if this were not enough, we must add that The only real winners from this boom are manufacturers and energy companies.

On the one hand, manufacturers are interested in this new system because instead of selling traditional light bulbs, they can now sell LED replacements, inflated by over-marketing, although their prices are no longer an issue.

On the other hand, energy companies have broken infrastructure, given the overloaded power grid. Updating the entire system would cost them billions, so they are encouraging companies and governments to spend money on new LED lighting.

In a word, LED lighting has its undeniable advantages.. It’s great for the environment and will reduce our carbon footprint, but financially it creates a business where we always end up losing everyday consumers even though we don’t take full advantage of this new way of lighting our homes and businesses.