In these times of recessions, rising energy costs are surely pinching everybody. People are trying to find out ways to cut their energy bills. When it comes to lighting, most people start thinking of incandescent bulbs. In recent years, use of LED lighting has increased for many reasons. The most important here is they are low-cost. They use very little energy to give same power as the conventional bulbs.

LED stands for Light emitting diodes. These bulbs are about four times more efficient and more environment friendly than the conventional incandescent bulbs and compact fluorescent bulbs respectively. These bulbs last longer than the other kinds of bulbs. They are expected to last about 15 years longer than the conventional lighting before burning out.

Incandescent bulbs are getting replaced by CFL very fast all over the world. Again when new technology is coming your way in the form of LED lighting, it is the time to replace CFLs. There are concerns while disposing CFL as they contain some amount of mercury. On the other hand LEDs do not contain mercury at all and they are safe environmentally.

LED lighting is around for years. You must have seen little red lights on various electronic devices like on your hi-fi, operation indicators of the adaptors, standby lights on TVs and others equipments. For lighting a room, LEDs are used in off-grid set-ups and 12 volt lighting applications.

Diodes allow current to flow only in one direction. Thereby, it stops the current coming in opposite direction. This diode emits light when current passes through it and that is why it is called as LED. There are no filaments to burn in LED and there is very little heat generated while lighting these bulbs. In conventional incandescent bulbs, much energy gets converted into heat which is of no use. It is the movement of electrons in the semiconductor material which illuminates the LED.

A single LED can illuminate a room. It needs an array of LEDs to illuminate a large area. Light from LEDs is directional and focused. In home lighting, it can be long strip or a cluster of LEDs arranged in a different directions.

According to Timothy D. Sands and Basil S. Turner Professor of Materials Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering: "The LED technology has the potential of replacing all incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs which would have dramatic energy and environmental ramifications". In coming years, LED lighting is going to be the choice of the people who care for their environment and want to cut their energy bills.