Custom essays on How Led in the Environment Affect Us

Hundreds of years ago scientists and usual people were obsessed with the ideas, how to make life of people easier, what technologies, including simple and not so simple, to apply, so that people can perform their duties quicker or have more comfort at home and at work. Nowadays, the technical progress continues to astonish us with new and new gadgets and systems, our lives are full of technical devices, we apply everyday and can not imagine our lives without them any more. However, one of the main problems nowadays is the problem of environment, which should be considered at the moment in the process of development of the new technologies. One of the major points, any new technology is judged by, is its impact upon environment. Further in this paper we are going to talk briefly about the LED lighting, as a new technology, and its influence upon environment and people.
Some time ago, consumers were able to choose only between really inefficient incandescents or fluorescents, which do not look nice and usually are only partially dimmable. Most specialists agree however, that LED technology presents the perfect substitution to these options. LED lighting lasts longer, than fluorescents lamps and the light, produced is much more attractive. “LEDs are not only mercury free, they’re also 300% more energy efficient than fluorescent lights and about 1000% more efficient than incandescent lights” (Mills, 2005).
Fluorescent lights are filled with special gas, with argon or vapor. The surface from the inside is covered with mixture of metals and phosphor salts. Thus, even if such lamps are energy saving, they are not absolutely harmless. “The problem exists because each year, an estimated 600 million fluorescent lamps are disposed of in U.S. landfills, amounting to 30,000 pounds of mercury waste. Astonishingly, that’s almost half the amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere by coal-fired power plants each year.” (Efremov, 2006).
One of the greatest advantages of LED lighting is the fact, that this light has only positive electrical polarity and longer life span. When ETTF (Estimated Time To Failure) for LEDs was calculated, it showed, that depending on the temperature of operating, LED work from 100.000 up to 1.000.000 hours, whereas for fluorescent lamps this parameter is usually limited by 10.000 hours theoretically and practically even less. The amount of the light produced per watt is much higher by LEDS than by incandescent bulbs. Usually LEDs are not known for sudden burnouts, they rather dim with time.
Most researchers agree, that the influence of LEDs upon environment is rather considerable, thus each bulb, substituted with LED, is important for environment, as well as it does help to save money of the consumer. One the one hand, as it was already mentioned LED lights last around ten times longer, than bulbs, they are four times more efficient and on the other hand they contribute to energy saving of around eighty percent. All these advantages make LEDs cheaper for the consumer and better for the environment.
Sometimes it seems to be problematic to buy LEDs, as they are more expensive, if their long-term operation is not considered properly. In reality, LED lighting needs only one third of general energy consumption if compared to usual bulbs. “An 18-watt LED light can replace a 75-watt incandescent bulb; in the lifetime of that 18-watt LED light (which is ten times longer than the incandescent) you will save 570 kilowatts of energy. This would be a rough savings of nearly $50 on your energy bill. A LED light easily pays for itself in its lifetime” (Efremov, 2006).
Apart of energy saving, another vitally important characteristic of LED lights is the fact, that they don’t contain any toxic chemical elements, being made of some inorganic semiconductor materials (Nakamura, 2000). LEDs do not cause any problems with radio interference, as they don’t produce RF wavelengths, at the same time they don’t throw out any ultraviolet.
The researchers, conducted lately by the Department of Energy, have shown, that national energy consumption might be reduced by almost thirty percent by the year 2025 in case of application of LEDs. This is sufficient contribution not only to huge cost savings for all citizens of America, but also vitally important for environment, considering such effects as global warming, energy and gas emissions and so on.
Overall, we have briefly studied the functioning of LEDs, the major advantages of this type of lighting in comparison to other types of lights, like for example their long –term operating, absence of any toxic elements in their composition; we have come to the conclusion, that application of LEDs is not simply const saving – if we consider the final calculation of their cost – but also sparing the environment. Important is, that for people being “conscious about the environment” it doesn’t mean bringing any serious changes into their lives or depriving them of any comfort at home. With LEDs there will be no difference in the light produced, but the cost and environment saved.

 
References:

Efremov, A. A. (2006). “Effect of the joule heating on the quantum efficiency and choice of thermal conditions for high-power blue InGaN/GaN LEDs”. Semiconductors 40: 605

Mills, E. (2005). “The Specter of Fuel-Based Lighting”. Science 308 (5726): 1263–1264

Nakamura, S. (2000). The Blue Laser Diode: The Complete Story. Springer Verlag

Pearsall, T. P.; Miller, B. I.; Capik, R. J.; Bachmann, K. J. (1976). “Efficient, Lattice-matched, Double Heterostructure LEDs at 1.1 mm from GaxIn1-xAsyP1-y by Liquid-phase Epitaxy”. Appl. Phys. Lett. 28: 499.