LED BULB

LED or Light-emitting diodes, are semiconductor devices that produce visible light
when an electrical current passed through them. LEDs are type of Solid State
Lighting (SSL), as are organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and light-emitting
polymers (LEPs).
This research is focused on the LED Light Bulb which differs from a traditional
incandescent bulb in the way it produces light. While old-fashioned incandescent
light bulbs passed electricity through a filament. LEDs produce light through the use
of a semi-conductor that emits light energy when an electrical current is passed
through it. This was invented in 1962 by Nick Holonyak, Jr. an American engineer,
scientist and educator. He was working with the General Electric Laboratory and
they called this invention as the magic one.
Moreover, the LED lighting products use light emitting diodes to produce light very
efficiently. An electrical current passes through semiconductor material, which
illuminates the tiny light sources we call LEDs. The heat produced is absorbed into a
heat sink.
Common LED colors include amber, red, green, and blue. There is actually no such
thing as a white LED. To get white light, the kind we use for lighting our homes
and offices, different color LEDs are mixed or covered with a phosphor material that
converts the color of the light. The phosphor is the yellow material you can see on
some LED products. Colored LEDs are widely used as signal lights and indicator
lights, like the power button on a computer.

LEDs are directional light sources, which means they emit light in a specific direction, unlike
incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs, which emit light and heat in all directions. For this
reason, LED lighting is also able to use light and energy more efficiently in many applications.
However, it also means that sophisticated engineering is needed to produce an LED light bulb
that
shines
light
all
around
like
an
incandescent
A-shape
bulb.

Electric

lighting

burns

up

to

25%

of

the

average

home

energy

budget.

The electricity used over the lifetime of a single incandescent bulb costs 5 to 10 times the original
purchase
price
of
the
bulb
itself.
Light Emitting Diode (LED) and Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) bulbs have revolutionized
energy-efficient
lighting.
CFLs are simply miniature versions of full-sized fluorescents. They screw into standard lamp
sockets, and give off light that looks similar to the common incandescent bulbs - not like the
fluorescent
lighting
we
associate
with
factories
and
schools.
LEDs are small, very efficient solid bulbs. New LED bulbs are grouped in clusters with diffuser
lenses which have broadened the applications for LED use in the home. LED technology is
advancing rapidly, with many new bulb styles available. Initially more expensive than CFLs, LEDs

bring more value since they last longer. Also, the price of LED bulbs is going down each year as
the manufacturing technology continues to improve.

LEDs and HEAT

BECAUSE led lighting systems dont radiate heat the way an incandescent or
halogen light bulb does, the heat produced from the power going into the product
must be drawn away from the LEDs. This is usually done with a heat sink, which is a
passive device that absorbs the heat produced and dissipates it into the
surrounding environment. This keeps LEDs from overheating and burning out.
Thermal management is probably the single most important factor in the successful
performance of an LED product over its lifetime because the higher the temperature
at which the LEDs are operated, the more quickly the light will degrade, and the
shorter the useful life will be.
After less than a year of use, a poorly designed LED product can flicker, shift in
color, look dim, offer uneven light, or continue to use power when turned off, among
other problems.
LED products use a variety of unique heat sink designs and configurations to
manage heat, so they may look very different from each other.

Both compact fluorescents and LED lightbulbs qualify as hazardous waste under
California and EPA protocols
New research from scientists in California and South Korea, published yesterday inEnvironmental
Science and Technology, shows that while compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) and LEDs have better
energy efficiency than incandescent bulbs, they compare unfavorably when you look at their potential
toxicity (at the end-of-life phase) and resource depletion.
First, lets be clear that the study focused on the kinds of CFL and LED light bulbs you can screw into a
lamp used for ambient lighting, not the LEDs used to light flat screen TVs or monitors (more on that later).
Also, the study did not consider toxicity in the extraction or manufacturing phase but just on the end-oflife phase, assuming they were trashed, not recycled (since sadly, most people do put used bulbs in the
trash).
Because the bulbs have very different expected lifetimes, they normalized their data on resource
depletion and toxicity potential by using data for fifty incandescents, five CFLs, and one LED bulb. Even
after normalizing their calculations, the team found that CFLs have from three to 26 times higher resource
depletion and toxicity potential than incandescents and LED bulbs have two to three times higher
potential.

Metals
Both CFLs and LEDs have higher levels of metals than incandescents have, except for Tungsten (in the
filaments) and nickel:

CFLs and LEDs require more metal-containing components that supply power to light the bulbs

CFLs and LED require one or more circuit boards (adding antimony, copper, lead, iron)

CFLs and LEDs use copper in the coils and zinc as protective coatings to stainless steel

CFLs contain mercury, phosphorous, and yttrium

LED bulbs include a heat sink to dissipate the heat (adding aluminum)

LED chips include antimony and gallium

LEDs use barium and chromium in stainless steel, and phosphorous, silver and gold elsewhere
With so many metals used, including some critical metals, we need to see more recycling and less
trashing of all these bulbs.
CFLs and LED bulbs flunk hazardous waste test
All three bulbs were tested to see if they should be classified as hazardous waste, under the protocols
established by Federal EPA (the TCLP test) and California Department of Toxic Substances Control (the
TTLC methodology). The CFLs and LED bulbs were both determined to be hazardous waste, but the
incandescent bulbs were not. Both the CFLs and LED bulbs far exceeded the federal TCLP levels for lead
and the California TTLC level for copper. The CFLs also far exceeded the California levels for zinc. While
the CFLs measured just below the California level for mercury, the authors state that the methods used
for sampling did not capture the mercury that could have vaporized when the CFL bulb was broken. (This
may mean that the primary concern could be the exposure to whomever breaks, or cleans up a broken
CFL bulb, even more than what happens in the trash.)
Toxicity
The study evaluated the hazard based toxicity potential (on a per bulb basis), using two different
methodologies. Both showed the CFLs and LEDs have higher hazard potential than incandescents
because of copper, aluminum and zinc. CFLs and LEDs also had higher scores for human and ecotoxicity potentials. The CFLs exhibit at least 2.5 and 1.3 times higher human- and eco-toxicity potentials

than the LEDs, respectively, and the CFLs and LEDs exhibit at least 2 orders of magnitude
higher potentials than the incandescent bulb, .