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It’s Illuminating: How LEDs Contribute to Saving Earth’s Resources
LED lighting is four times more energy efficient and lasts up to 100 times longer than old-fashioned incandescent lighting.
Light-emitting diodes (or LEDs) were discovered at Marconi Labs in 1907, but it wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that red, orange, yellow, and green LEDs were commercialized. White LEDs were not possible until a small company in Tokushima, Japan, was able to create blue LEDs in 1994, an achievement that earned the inventors a Nobel Prize in Physics twenty years later. “As about one-fourth of world electricity consumption is used for lighting purposes, the LEDs contribute to saving the Earth’s resources,” explained the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in making the award. “The LED lamp holds great promise for increasing the quality of life […]: due to low power requirements, it can be powered by cheap local solar power.”
Two That Matter Most
To know how well you are meeting your needs for lighting with energy-efficient LEDs, these two indicators matter most:
- How much electricity you use.
- How many lighting products you buy each year.
