Lighting has come a long way since the first incandescent light bulbs were invented in the nineteenth century. Today there is fluorescent lighting, halogen bulbs, high powered LED (light emitting diode) lighting, and HID (high intensity discharge) lighting, just to name a few. These different types of lighting each have their own advantages and disadvantages, as well as their own unique differences. The purpose of this article is to compare HID lighting with high powered LED lighting and see how each form differs from the other.
According to Bulbs.com, high intensity discharge lights are gas-discharge arc lamps that create light by sending an electrical discharge between two electrodes and through a plasma, or ionized gas. The basic premise for HID lighting has existed for several centuries and was first demonstrated in the eighteenth century. HID lights have one distinct disadvantage compared to high powered LED lights: some of them, according to Bulbs.com, take a certain amount of time to warm up before switching on, which makes them impractical for being used with applications that require turning on and off on a regular basis. By comparison, LED lights use light emitting diodes to produce light. Essentially, this means the light is generated within a solid material. Both types create effective lighting, but they are not identical. For example, while HID lights are brighter than their LED counterparts, its s the LED lights that last longer. In fact, compared to a regular fluorescent bulb, LED lights last much longer. On average, a fluorescent bulb lasts around 20,000 hours, while an LED tube can last for about 50,000 hours or about five and a half years, depending on how often the tube is switched on.
Compared to standard incandescent light bulbs or even halogen bulbs, LED lighting is far superior. LED lights use less than 20 percent of the energy a regular halogen light uses and emits almost 90 percent more light. If everyone used LED lighting in their homes, it could potentially reduce energy consumption across the entire country by almost 50 percent. Compared to HID lighting, LED lighting is definitely superior, since it lasts longer and uses far less energy.
In conclusion, HID lighting and LED lighting are two different yet useful forms of lighting. HID lighting uses plasma or ionized gas to create its lighting while LED uses light emitting diodes to create its light. While both are useful, LED lighting is somewhat superior, lasting longer and using less energy over time. Both have their advantages depending on what the lighting needs to be used for.