Environmental responsibility is a concern for a growing number of people, and now it influences buying decisions for both individual consumers and companies of all sizes.
While most people seem to understand the general principles of minimizing waste, pollution reduction, and use of non-renewable resources, many of us are less aware of the fact how the latest technologies can help us reduce our environmental impact.
LED lighting is a perfect example in this case. This cutting-edge form of illumination, which can be used for both practical and fun purposes, is here to help us reduce our monthly energy consumption.
On Premier Glow, I found many environmental benefits of the LED light technology, some of which even managed to surprise me.
Energy Efficiency of LED Lights
When compared to older lighting technologies like incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes, LED lights offer energy efficiency increases of up to 80%. In large part, this is because LED technology converts 95% of the electricity fed into light, with only 5% being wasted as heat.
Compare this to incandescent bulbs, which feature the exact opposite waste ratio: up to 95% of the energy fed into them turns into waste heat.
Due to these advantages in terms of efficiency produced LED lights, we draw less electrical power from the grid to produce the same amount of light as traditional bulbs and tubes.
An equivalent LED replacement for an 84-watt fluorescent light will require only 36 watts to reach the same light level. More efficient, lower-drawing LED lights reduce the demand for electricity at power plants and therefore reduces the level of greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere.
No Toxic Trash
None of the materials used to build LED lights today are toxic.
This is a sharp contrast to fluorescent lights, which have several environmentally-problematic ingredients, particularly mercury.
The toxic contents of fluorescent lights make them difficult to dispose of.
In a commercial context, companies using fluorescent lights typically have to pay for specialized disposal with a properly-registered waste management company.
Switching to LED lights can simplify and economize disposal significantly, while also reducing the amount of toxic waste entering the environment.
Better-Focused Light
LEDs also score over older lighting technologies in light distribution.
They focus light much better than the previous technology, wasting less energy into the light that escapes in unwanted directions. Traditional lights often illuminate areas that don’t need it, like the ceiling. The better focus offered by LED lights means that users need fewer units to achieve the same lighting effect.
Longer Life
LED lights can last as much as six times longer compared to other older technologies such as incandescent bulbs, fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent light (CFL). This means that we have to replace them less often, so less money will be consumed to replace them.
Being replaced much less rarely and consuming a smaller amount of power to generate the same amount of light, LED lights will release a smaller amount carbon emissions into the atmosphere, and will produce a smaller amount of waste.
This technology is way more efficient because it consumes fewer resources in the manufacturing process, for packaging, transportation, and disposal.
