Why the world needs the LED
The light emitting diode. Hundreds of children in the 1980s would sit with their electronics kit open on the living room floor, sifting through all the bits and wondering which of the little projects they would do first but without a doubt, the one they all wanted to do was the one which would make the little red LED light up. Lighting something up was cool. Little red lights were cool. LEDs were cool – especially if you knew what it stood for.
You knew it was cool because that was the little light on the front of the robot. You know the one: you couldn’t afford it, but one of your friends had it. It walked about and talked and bleeped and flashed – flashed that little red LED.
Without the little light, both the robot and the electronics kit would have had a lot less to entice small children. Those kits needed the LED.
More than a generation later, and LEDs have found their way out of the toy catalogues, and moved straight into the living room, the office and even the pocket. If you are reading this on anything which you would consider ‘modern’, there’s a high chance these words are LEDs beaming their environmentally-friendly and ever so power-efficient light into your eyes.
LED televisions are the height of technology. LED powered smartphones and tablets are not just clever, they are essential for getting such a good degree of clarity into such a small space. LEDs are still up there on the list of ‘cool’ things, even if it is a little embarrassing to use the word. LEDs are cool.
The world has moved on. While in the 1980s, most people had no idea what being “environmentally friendly” was, and it was very doubtful anyone was checking the emissions output of their lightbulbs, the 21st century takes these things very seriously. Incandescent lightbulbs are now very much a no-no, and CFL lights (that’s compact fluorescent lamp), while very much the new norm, just don’t have the impact of the LED – or rather the lack of impact. LEDs have very little effect on our planet and provide a true cost-effective solution for lighting needs, lasting more than five times longer than the competition.
LED lighting is more than simply a way of making the world brighter: it is a true solution to lighting needs. LEDs are cooler (in terms of temperature) than other forms of lighting, and smaller, so they can be used for applications which are simply impossible otherwise. Their low-power needs mean that the surrounding technology can be smaller too specifically the GU10 bulb. All of this adds up to the perfect answer for so many requirements.
The world needs the LED. Just as the burning torch was superseded by the oil lamp, and that was in turn replaced by electrical lighting, so too will incandescent light bulbs and CFL give way to the LED. Environmentally aware, adaptable, and without a single doubt, cool.
