the lighting of choice for years to come

By meeting demand for new installations of street lights which is said to be 100,000 per year in Japan, Sharp is offering these units as powerful floodlights for crime deterrence and emergency safety lighting featuring both environmental performance and nighttime visibility.In the past few years, LEDs have made huge advances in energy efficiency. Industry sources and outside experts say LEDs are now the most energy-efficient led flood light source available. They use far less energy than other bulbs, last a lot longer, and cost less to use over their lifetime.For now, the lights still cost more than the average consumer is used to spending on a light bulb -- a lot more. Prices for LEDs on the market today can be more than five times what an incandescent bulb costs. However, the LEDs use about 85% less energy and last 30 times longer. They also use about half as much energy and last five times longer than compact fluorescent lights.

Manufacturers' game plan is to first target commercial and industrial customers, for whom the economics of LEDs are increasingly too compelling to ignore. Such customers leave their lights on most or all of the time and pay labor costs each time bulbs are changed. Longer-lasting lights that use less energy thus offer them significant savings over time.Then, as sales increase, creating economies of scale and bringing down production costs and prices, the industry will expand its marketing to residential customers in a push that many observers expect will make LEDs the lighting of choice for years to come.

LEDs consist of a small semiconductor that emits photons when electricity is applied. For decades, they've been used as indicator lights for small applications like remote controls and stereos. A major hurdle to their broader use for industrial and residential lighting, however, was manufacturers' inability to boost brightness without increasing power consumption too much. Advances in materials used in LEDs have led to an explosion in technological improvements at the leading LED companies over the past two years. An LED light and fixture on the led high bay light, produces about 60 lumens per watt, a measure of lighting efficiency. That product is about as bright as a 65-watt incandescent bulb, while using only about one-sixth of the power. The LED lamp also has an estimated life of about 50,000 hours, about 33 times longer than that of an incandescent light.