Incandescent Light vs Light Emitting Diode (LED)

Incandescent Light

Incandescent bulbs contain a filament that is heated up until it emits light. The hotter the filament gets, the more light the lamp produces. Efficiency of an incandescent bulb is somewhere between 5-10%, which means that between 90-95% of energy produced is wasted in the form of heat. Filaments in incandescent bulbs are fragile and burn out or break relatively easily. Average life span of traditional incandescent bulbs is about 1000 hours. Perhaps most importantly, governments around the world have passed measures to phase out incandescent light bulbs for general lighting by 2014.

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

Light Emitting Diodes (LED) are semiconductors (materials that transport an electrical charge). They produce light when an electrical current passes through them. They produce light very efficiently, requiring considerably less watts than traditional lights. Average life span of LEDs is between 25,000 and 40,000 hours.

Average Life

The Average Life of a bulb is measured in hours and is calculated based on how long it takes for a percentage of the light bulbs in a test batch to fail. The Average Life of an incandescent bulb is approximately 1000 hours. The Average Life of an LED bulb is between 25,000 and 40,000 hours.