How would you like it if you paid a lot less for your energy bill, while the ambient light in your house dimmed or increased depending on your needs or on the time of the day, as well as change color, and last longer without the need of replacement? If this sounds good to you, you should know that this is not just a technology to dream of, but it's also possible by using LED light. Most of the technology is already available and a large number of companies (and many private households) have begun embracing it.

LED stands for light-emitting diode, and it is basically similar as a process to the science behind your average incandescent bulb, only that electrons generate light by moving through a semiconductor material. But unlike other lighting sources, LEDs require much less energy (up to six times less than their competitors, the compact fluorescent light bulbs or CFLs, which have been seen as a proper replacement for regular bulbs), generate substantially less heat and carbon dioxide, and contain no toxic mercury.

 

"We are at the verge of a revolution," claimed E. Fred Schubert, a professor of electrical engineering and physics from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, cited by Live Science. "There are tremendous opportunities that open up with LED lighting," he said, adding that a decade of LED usage would save over $1 trillion in energy costs and help the environment by drastically reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

 

"Lighting uses 22 percent of the electricity and 8 percent of the total energy spent in the country, so the energy savings in lighting will have a huge impact," said Yoshi Ohno, a scientist from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). But Schubert thinks that only the replacement of bulbs will not be enough, as the whole light generating process has to be changed in order to obtain Sun-like LED lighting that would modify brightness, temperature and hue. This would come in handy for indoor agriculture, night shift workers and jet-lagged persons.

 

If you're not convinced, perhaps you'd want to start at a small scale, by just replacing your Christmas tree lights. The Electric Power Research Institute indicates that this alone could drop your seasonal energy bill cost from $6-10, as with regular Christmas tree lights, to only 13-17 cents. Also, replacing the tree and outdoor holiday lights in all the US would generate a total saving of $250 million this season.