LED Home Lighting Products
- LED lights are used on desks, in kitchens and in landscaping.Creative Crop/Digital Vision/Getty Images
LED stands for light emitting diode, a special type of transistor that is made with compounds that react to electrical current by producing light. Different combinations of these compounds produce different colors. LEDs are very expensive, but have many advantages: they last far longer than other light sources, they use comparatively little energy and they can be used in many different products around the home. - Under-cabinet lighting is used in kitchens to provide extra illumination for counters. LED lights are very small by themselves, so manufacturers group them together for most home products. For under-cabinet lights, LEDs are strung along in a bar-like shape, mimicking fluorescent tubes that are more commonly used for this purpose. LED under-cabinet lights can be either white or warmer yellow colors.
- Landscape lighting includes general ambiance lighting outdoors and spotlights that illuminate particular landscape features. LED lights are normally too small for these applications as well, so producers cluster them together for spotlights, using films to focus the light into a beam. Flexible "tape" with LED lights can also be used in landscape lighting.
- LEDs work very well for desk lamps and desk lighting. These clusters are smaller than outdoor spotlight versions, but provide highly dependable illumination. The key is the color: pure white or blue LEDs are too harsh to use for desk lamps, so products are typically made in warmer colors.
- Night-lights provide a small amount of illumination to give visibility when homes are dark. LED lights are especially well-suited to this application, since only one or two diodes can give enough light to act as night-lights while also lasting for years.
