LED Strip Lights & the Environment
Up and coming LED technologies can help to reduce carbon emissions, and they offer other green benefits for the environment too.
LEDs convert up to 95% of the energy-supply in into light (just 5% is wasted as heat), whereas fluorescents typically convert only 5%-10%. (Wasting up to 95%!) The comparative efficiency of LEDs means far less power is need to produce the same light-levels; as the infographic at the top of this page shows, 1 metre of 25-watt white LED tape produces roughly the same light-level as two 70-watt halogen bulbs. And that lower power consumption decreases energy demand, which in turn reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Another environmentally green benefit is the non-toxic nature of LED components. By contrast, the fluorescent lighting found in many workplaces contains toxic chemicals such as mercury. As well as a pollutant, this is potentially hazardous. In a study reported in the 1 August 2008 edition of Environmental Science & Technology, Robert Hurt (director of the Institute for Molecular & Nanonscale Inovation) was quoted as saying, “The amount of mercury gas [from a broken CFL bulb] is over a milligram over a few days. If you put that milligram into a poorly ventilated room, the concentration can be over the recommended limit for children. The overall risk is low, but it’s not zero risk, and there is definitely an opportunity to do better.”
The long life of LED strip lights saves on more than just maintenance costs. The 50,000 hour LED life expectancy that we already flagged (above) also leads to massive reductions in the industrial power-consumption required to manufacture replacement bulbs – another greenhouse gas-emission saving!
