The market place for LEDs is vast and varied. There are many different types of LED products, ranging from ambient LED products – you would perhaps recognize LEDs in the form of fairy lights or solar garden lights to LEDs used in warning signals and digital clocks. The light output in these is not crucial, as they serve to provide an ambience, colour or mood lighting, unlike high-powered ‘white light' LED products whose sole use is to deliver bright light output for functional applications.

This ‘functional’ lighting from LEDs can also vary greatly. There are different levels of brightness available from LED light sources, and as yet, there is no industry-wide common standard in LED lights, hence a need to be very clear in what you require when purchasing LED lamps. There are several things to look out for so that you can be sure you get exactly the kind of light you need. Here are some of the crucial components a high-powered LED product is made from;

LED CHIPS – this is the element that determines the brightness of the LED lamp. The more powerful the Chip, the brighter the light it will emit. With LED Chips, it comes down to the lumens per watt, the more lumens powered by the least wattage determines the most powerful and efficient LED. High-powered LED chips are able to last 50,000+ hours.

LED DRIVERS – this is a very important component which ‘drives’ the LED chip. It regulates the current being delivered to the LED chip, and is responsible for making the Chip more efficient, long-lasting and reliable.

HEAT SINK – this prolongs the life of the LED, and the driver, by dissipating the heat efficiently. This is crucial to keep the driver going, if the driver gets too hot and burns out then the lamp will fail. It keeps the whole lamp cooler, which in turn allows it to operate more effectively.

COLOUR TEMPERATURE – this is the colour of light source – it is measured in Kelvins, and you can get varying levels of whiteness depending on the colour temperature, i.e. cool white, warm white or pure white.

LUMENS PER WATT – this is calculated by dividing the number of lumens a light source emits, by the power it uses. Incandescent light sources produce approximately 8-17 lumens per watt; you will familiar with these energy-hungry lamps using between 45 – 100 watts. The current CFLs, or carbon fluorescent lamps (low energy bulbs) produce between 60-72 lumens per watt. In start contrast to both of these, LED lamps are capable of delivering between 75-140 lumens per watt, making them the ultimate energy efficient light source.

Given the above factors, there are varying standards of quality to look out for when buying LED products. At the lower end of the market, you can find cheap LED lamps, and the price of the lamp is a good indicator as to the components that have been used.

You can find low-grade LED chips, and Chinese LED chips, which may deliver inconsistent light output. You will also find inferior drivers in cheaper products, which means you may get unreliability, flickering, burn out or high rates of failure with these lamps. The smaller, or cheaper the heat sink – the lower its ability to keep the LED cool, which will affect its lifespan and smooth-running.

In essence, the cheaper the LED lamp, the more likelihood that it has been made using cheaper or inferior components, and more chance that it either won’t last 50,000 hours, will lose its brightness considerably with age or may fail.

We only use leading LED chips in all of our functional LED lamps, either Dutch Luxeon Chips or American CREE ‘super’ chips, which are currently the brightest on the market. We also use leading powerful drivers, which have both load and short circuit protection, safeguarding the lamp from power spikes or unstable circuitry. Our lamps have specific colour temperatures, important for commercial applications and environments where the colour-rendering is imperative, so you can be sure of the colour consistency of our LEDs. We also incorporate extensive heat sinks into our products, so that the brighter the light output achieved, the larger the heat sink to ensure optimal performance, of the LED chip and the driver(s).

Our LED lamps are positioned at the premium-end of the market, and therefore we offer a 2 year guarantee with all of our products. As with any electrical product, minimal failures are inevitable. Should any of our lamps fail within two years of purchase, then we will happily replace it at no additional cost (excluding postage and packing).