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LEDs set to become viable in lighting

New York: Light-Emitting Diodes (LED) will become economically attractive as replacements for conventional light bulbs in about two years. Such a shift will pave the way for big savings in electricity consumption, an expert in the field has said.

Right now, consumers can buy an LED, that provides about the same level of illumination as an energy-hogging conventional 60-watt lightbulb at about $60, CNET online quoted Steven DenBaars, a Professor of material science at the University of California Santa Barbara, as saying. But prices have been declining rapidly, and two years from now the same LED should cost around $20. "At $20 the payback in energy occurs in about a year."

Prof. DenBaars was addressing the SEMI NanoForum. A principal advantage of the LED is that it lasts about 100,000 hours, far longer than the conventional filament bulb. Rapid return on investment will occur in places such as stores and warehouses, where the light is on through much of the day and night.

A year after that, CNET said, LEDs will be even more economical for more places as costs continue to decline.

Approximately 22 per cent of the electricity consumed in the U.S. goes toward lighting, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Traditional light bulbs are power inefficient: only about 5 per cent of the energy that goes into them turns into light. The rest gets dissipated as heat. — PTI

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