How Do LED Filament Bulbs Work? - The Lightbulb Co. UK (2024)

FAQs

How do LED filament bulbs work? ›

LED filament light bulbs differ from traditional incandescent filament bulbs in that they use a metal strip lined with LEDs to produce light instead of heating a filament. The LED strip is coated with a phosphor, typically encased in glass, creating a warmer yellow tone similar to incandescent bulbs.

LED lighting products produce light up to 90% more efficiently than incandescent light bulbs. How do they work? An electrical current passes through a microchip, which illuminates the tiny light sources we call LEDs and the result is visible light.

By January 1879, at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Edison had built his first high resistance, incandescent electric light. It worked by passing electricity through a thin platinum filament in the glass vacuum bulb, which delayed the filament from melting.

An LED bulb produces light by passing the electric current through a semiconducting material—the diode—which then emits photons (light) through the principle of electroluminescence.

PRO TIP: LED filament bulbs generate less heat than traditional LEDs (which still emit significantly less heat than incandescent, halogen, or compact fluorescent bulbs) because their diodes are more spaced out. As a result, they dissipate heat more easily and often have even greater longevity than standard LEDs.

LEDs are efficient and long-lasting. On average, LED can last up to 100,000 operating hours, which is four times longer than what other lighting solutions can offer. Even more, research shows that LED lights can last 40 times more than incandescent bulbs.

LEDs allow the current to flow in the forward direction and blocks the current in the reverse direction. Light-emitting diodes are heavily doped p-n junctions. Based on the semiconductor material used and the amount of doping, an LED will emit coloured light at a particular spectral wavelength when forward biased.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of LED light bulbs is that they emit more blue light than incandescent bulbs, which are more on the red end of the spectrum. Blue light can cause a disruption in your circadian rhythm, negatively affect your ability to fall asleep and the quality of your sleep.

The simplest way to operate an LED is to apply a voltage source across it with a resistor in series. The LED emits constant-intensity light as long as the operating voltage (V_B) remains constant (although the intensity decreases with increasing ambient temperature).

No one would claim Tesla invented the light bulb, but during his brief tenure, Tesla submitted designs for arc lighting, the kind of street lighting that Humphry Davy pioneered decades before. Edison's own low-voltage design couldn't scale up to high-powered arc lighting.

How many times did it take Thomas Edison to get the light bulb to work? ›

Yes! He failed 2774 times according to his records and then reached a working design of an electric light bulb. This is how many times Thomas failed in making a light bulb filament that will glow in a vacuum when electricity is passed.

American polymath Benjamin Franklin is most credited for discovering electricity in 1752. In an experiment, he attached a wire to a kite in a thunderstorm, which showed that lightning consists of electricity.

An LED is what's called a "solid-state lighting" technology, or SSL. Basically, instead of emitting light from a vacuum (as in an incandescent bulb) or a gas (as in a CFL), an SSL emits light from a piece of solid matter.

Unlike incandescent light bulbs, LEDs don't produce light using heat. This is part of what makes them so energy efficient. The downside is that their components can be sensitive to overheating, which can cause them to burn out prematurely.

Yes, there are LED bulbs that don't get hot. The reason that they don't get hot is that they don't use a filament as incandescent and halogen lights do. Instead, they use semiconductors that produce light through electro-luminescence (EL).

How do LEDs produce light? A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons.

You can simply replace them with LED light bulbs without having to change anything about your lighting system. Although they were once known as energy-saving light bulbs compared to incandescent filament light bulbs, they consume more electricity than LED light bulbs and have a shorter useful life.

LED bulbs afford in the region of 50,000 hours of light, with some brands boasting as many as 100,000 hours. In general, terms, if you use your lights for 10 hours each day, LEDs should serve you well for just shy of 14 years.

In short, yes. LED lamps are cheaper to run than energy saving bulbs. It's worth considering that the upfront cost of your light bulb isn't the final cost, and that the cheapest initial cost doesn't guarantee long-term savings.