Frequenty Asked Questions

Q. What does LED stand for?

A. LED stands for Light Emitting Diode

Q. What is the difference between an incandescent bulb and LED?

A. Incandescent creates light by the use of a filament. When power is applied, the filament glows and generates heat - which in turn produces light. LEDs are just the opposite. LEDs create light through a 'cold process'. When power is applied to semiconductors (usually gallium, asenic and phosphorous), they're stimulated by the movement of electrons, which creates photons. Photons are the light that is visibly seen by humans.

Q. Do LEDs have a wire filament?

A. No, LEDs operate using entirely different components. LEDs are diodes - they only allow power to move in one direction. The anode (+) is where the current comes in and the cathode (-) is where the current goes out, much like the positive and negative terminals of a battery. Incandescent bulbs project light in every direction (omni directional) as opposed to LED lights which project light in specified directions (such as 20, 50 and 120 degrees) due to their package design and layout.

Q. Why do LEDs use such little power?

A. LEDs donot use a filament where a conductor is heated and light is created. Filament based lighting consumes more power than the light produced. LEDs produce very little amounts of heat and do not use filaments making them far more efficient in consumption and output.

Q. Do LEDs produce heat?

A. LEDs produce very little heat. The heat noticed in some instances is due to on board components and other factors of the circuit. In comparison to incandescent, LEDs produce a fraction of the heat. If LEDs are hot to the touch, they are being overpowered due to improper circuitry.

Q. Can LEDs be damaged if hooked up backwards?

A. Yes, they can. LEDs are diodes and only allow power to pass in one direction. To ensure that you will get the most life out of our LED devices, we add additional circuits to prevent this from occuring in both AC and DC applications.

Q. Are LEDs affected by extreme conditions?

A. LEDs are geared for harsh environments. LEDs function from -40F to 180F. There is no delay or required "warm up time" for LEDs to function.

Q. Do LEDs attract insects?

A. No they do not. Insects see entirely differrent spectrums of light and are attracted to ultraviolet light. A side note - flowers create "nectar guides", invisible to the human eye and ultraviolet light attracts insects to flowers for reproductive purposes. This is not to say that all bugs aren't attracted to LED lights, but most can't see the light that LEDs produce.

Q. How long do LEDs last?

A. LEDs are rated by manufacturers to operate under normal conditions for approximately 10 years or 100,000 hours of continuous use. As LEDs get older, they tend to dim and fade but aren't susceptible to blinking like incandescent or fluorescents.

Q. LEDs are more expensive than other lighting options. Why?

A. LEDs can operate as stand alone devices, but when grouped or clustered they require additional steps to operate properly. LEDs need proper components such as a circuit board, driving components and some cases and housings to endure the elements. LED circuits can be designed rapidly, but to ensure that they operate correctly and for long periods of time they require testing.

Q. Can LEDs be dimmed?

A. It's useful to think of an LED as a current-driven device. The light output is proportional to the drive current over a decent range. Things go a bit odd at the bottom end of the current range, where the LED may flicker or change color. So dimming by reductions in forward current isn't the most useful technique. Instead, pulse width modulation presents a technique to safely dim an LED from 0 - 100% of its' nominal brightness. By pulsing the LED with current, and varying the duty cycle of the current waveform, the LED rapidly transitions between on and off, and the relative times spent give the impression of being dimmed.

Q. How do you get more light out of an LED?

A. LEDs are made by a process that deposits the junction materials on a substrate material. One of the limitations of LEDs is that imperfections in the material deposited on the substrate reduce the efficiency. Improvements in the manufacturing process have given us brighter LEDs, as have new junction materials.