BENEFITS OF LED LIGHTING VS FLUORESCENT TUBES

Fluorescent tubes have been around for years. They have been consistently proven to be economical while producing the illumination required in working and public environments. In recent years, however, a newer form of light source has come to the fore: The LED. Both fluorescent tubes and LEDs have their advantages and disadvantages, but LEDs seem to be winning the attention of consumers. Let's take a look to see why that is, and why you should consider LED lighting over fluorescent tubes.

To explore why LEDs have advantages over fluorescent tubes, we must first understand how both light sources work. It is how they are designed and the way they operate which produces both positives and negatives to each light source. Fluorescent Lights : Fluorescent tubes, and their smaller cousins compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), work in a strikingly different way to LEDs. Fluorescent tubes are made up of a long glass tube with metal fittings on each end where electricity is passed into them. Inside the glass tube is a small amount of magnesium and an inert gas (a gas which does not normally react to stimulation such as heat or electricity), usually argon. The inside of the glass is coated in a phosphorous powder. When electricity is passed into the metal caps at each end, it excites the magnesium inside the tube. Magnesium atoms then release energy in the form of ultraviolet light, which is invisible to the naked eye. When the ultraviolet light hits the phosphorous coating, the phosphorous begins to glow, creating light. LED Lights : LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. Unlike both fluorescent and incandescent light sources, LEDs do not contain a gas or a filament of any kind. Instead, the entire LED is made up of a material called a semiconductor. This material is solid in nature, which makes LEDs a little more durable. When electricity is passed through the semiconductor material, the electrons inside begin whizzing about which releases energy in the form of visible light.