Disadvantages of LED Lighting

There are several major disadvantages to LEDs that restrict their application and slow their wider adoption in general lighting applications.

Lack of Choice
There is currently a relative lack of availability of product choices for white LEDs. LEDs are undergoing continuous development, particularly in terms of lumen package per unit and lumens per watt. Progress is continuing rapidly. Philips Lighting and Hewlett-Packard, for example, recently launched LumiLEDs—a joint venture with a starting investment of $150 million, 1,000 employees and facilities in California, The Netherlands and Malaysia—with the goal of rapidly developing LED technology. Many other manufacturers are also exploring this emerging technology.

While some products are available now for the architectural market, it may take a while longer before fixture manufacturers begin to roll out a large selection of products that take advantage of this light source for general illumination.

Color Quality
White LEDs currently offer poor color rendering and a high color temperature. As improvements are made to the technology in the lab, however, we can expect these problems to be corrected.

Product Standardization
There is currently no standardization for this technology, raising questions about maintainability. Will the manufacturer offer matching spare parts when systems begin to fail or will entire systems need to be replaced?

Introduction to LED Lighting

Advantages of LED Lighting

Disadvantages of LED Lighting

OLED - The Future?

Pictured above is a color-changing LED system from TIR Systems located in the parking lot of the Swinomish Casino in Anacortes, WA..

LED Manufacturers (from LightSearch.com)

LED Fixture Manufacturers

LED Component Manufacturers