The NS-Caffe Tech Blog

The way light bulbs work is sometimes a complicated and tough process to grasp. With the recent increase in LED light bulb purchases I was curious as the how the technology works. I knew what the benefits were (decreased carbon emissions, less power consumed, and longer shelf life for example) but wanted to understand the process behind it. It blew my mind that a traditional 45 Watt equivalent bulb, for example, could be replaced by a 2 Watt LED bulb. I took to the internet and found my answer. The website that I found had the best explanation was ecmweb.com. I will try to explain how they basically work, staying away from the real technical aspects. LEDs stand for light emitting diodes. These are devices that have the capability of converting electric energy directly into light of a single, one color. The power saving comes from the LEDS ability to eliminate waste energy in the form of heat. Heat as a non-light source is what uses a lot of the energy in traditional lighting sources such as compact fluorescents and incandescents. A diode is in the middle of an LED bulb and acts as the main light producer. As the current comes through the diode, light is produced from within the chip-mounted diode as it acts as a reflector. LEDs can offer a variety of different styles, shapes, and forms of light based upon the diode’s size in the bulb. This is a very basic explanation, but more detailed information can be found on ecmweb.com or other online sources.