What is an LED?
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. No filaments heat up, as in traditional lights. Instead the light is created by a cleverly designed tiny electronic chip. LED could stand for Little Electronic Device.

We’ve heard they are very energy-efficient – is this true?
Yes. LEDs require very little electricity to power them up. This is because they are extremely efficient. Their design converts approximately 90% of the electricity they consume into light. In a conventional light the figure is more like 10 – 15%, with the rest of the electricity effectively wasted in lost heat. Our Greenled downlighters, for example, draw only 5 Watts of electricity to light up, compared to the 35 Watts drawn by a traditional halogen downlighter. That is a saving in electricity consumption of approximately 85%. Not bad when the cost of electricity is continually rising. All Greenled lights are LED-based and all are highly energy-efficient.

So what’s so good about Greenled lights?
Lots of things. As well as being highly energy-efficient, our lights are suitable for retro-fit installation and new builds. This means they can be used to replace existing lights (especially inefficient halogens) and/or be installed into buildings being designed for the future. Greenled lights are all thoroughly tested before they are released onto the market. They are all CE approved, ROHS compliant and all tested to meet minimum safety standards. They can be truly relied upon for longevity and for performance. That is why they carry guarantees – unlike most of the competition.

What’s wrong with other low-energy lighting?
The usual low-energy light technology on the market today is CFL – standing for Compact Fluorescent Light. These tend to be curly in shape and give off a bluey-white light. In effect they are the same technology as the neon fluorescent tubes often found in offices or kitchens, simply engineered to fit into smaller fittings (hence “compact”). CFL technology is energy-efficient, as it uses less electricity than traditional lighting. However, CFLs contain mercury, phosphor and other toxic materials in measurable quantities – they need these materials in order to work. They also tend to be made of glass and if they break they are a health hazard from both the glass shards and the mercury. This makes them expensive to handle and dispose of. In fact as of 2007, you MUST employ the services of a properly registered disposal company whenever you want to have CFLs removed. In addition CFL lights tend to flicker and usually take time to come on – causing health and safety issues. LEDs have none of these problems.

OK – that all sounds good. So how does the light compare?
LEDs gained a reputation a few years ago for having a weak light output which was often blue in appearance. No longer. And certainly not from Greenled. We are at the forefront of this technology. There are many lights in our range which are a warm white, echoing the yellow candle light of a halogen lamp. LEDs are able to be coloured precisely – much more precisely than any other lights. There are two ways to achieve this: for a high powered single LED chip, a coloured phosphor is coated on the silicon chip. For a cluster LED, the cluster can include red, green and blue chips. These can be adjusted to match most colours.

Do your lights meet the specifications and recommendations?
Our lights each come with a data sheet setting out their specifications. Minimum lux levels and light output requirements can all be met with our lights

How can we say that these lights last 40,000 hours?
Our lights actually last for much, much longer than 40,000 hours, but after that the light output begins to look a bit less than it was. It is accepted that the human eye will begin to notice a difference when the light output decreases to about 70% of its maximum. Using tested mathematical formulae, our technical team calculates when that 70% point is in hours – and that is the length of time we say our lights will last for.

Is this full period guaranteed?
No. But we are one of the first companies to offer you a guarantee on light bulbs. Groundbreaking stuff!  We guarantee every bulb for at least two years and we are aiming to extend that further.

Why is no one else doing this type of lighting? 
Of course other companies do offer excellent LED based lighting. Many companies specialise in making LEDs for decorative lighting effects. Most of the large companies are working hard to develop LED lighting, but they also make a lot of money selling halogen and CFL technology and it takes time for a large company to introduce new products. At Greenled our strength is that we have a wide range of tested, approved, working lights in stock and available for installation right now.

Do your lights fit existing fittings? 
Certainly. All of Greenled’s mains downlighter bulbs have GU10 or ES27 screw fittings which fit standard fittings. Our MR16 (or GU5.3) low voltage bulbs also fit standard fittings.

Will standard transformers suit Greenled low voltage bulbs?
Low-voltage lights require transformers in order to work. We recommend our own LED transformers as these have been specifically designed to work with our LEDs. Standard halogen transformers often fail to recognise that there is an electric call from an LED bulb because the wattage demand is so low. Our guarantees are only valid where our transformers are used in conj unction with our low-voltage LED lights.

Will Greenled lights accommodate the spikes and surges in the UK electricity grid?
YES. But that will definitely not be the case with most other LEDs. At Greenled our technologists have worked very hard to incorporate sophisticated circuitry into each bulb which cuts out the light, until the surge regulates itself.

Why are LEDs so much more expensive than regular light bulbs?
The main reason is that LEDs are built using complex engineering, expensive tooling and solid materials e.g. aluminium and ceramics. Our lights, for example, are engineered to last for 5 - 10 years. They use one eighth of the power of today’s halogen downlighters – and it is the design and engineering that ensures the savings in running costs.

So what savings can we expect with your lights?
Lighting can be expensive. Possibly more so than is obvious at first glance. Often people focus solely on the costs of the lights themselves, but the continual costs of maintenance, of making sure the bulbs are all working and that there are enough in stock can add considerably to the overall lighting costs. With Greenled you do not need to worry about that any longer. Our lights are designed to save you money. If you have, say, 25 downlights running at 35 watts each = 875 watts. If they run for, say, an average of 10 hours per day every day = 3650 hours per year. That is 875 x 3650 of energy = 3193750 watts per yr = 3193.75 kwH. In 2007 the commercial average electricity cost was 7p / kwH = £ 223.56. By using Greenled downlights instead, your 25 x 3.7 watt LEDs will now consume 92 W, which, over 3650 hrs = 335.80 kwH. At 7p / kwH that is £ 23.51. Immediately you have made a saving of 90% (£ 200 per year or £ 8 per light). In 2008/9, the average cost of electricity may well rise to 9p / kwH. In which case the saving will rise to over £ 10 per light per year. And that does not include air-con or maintenance savings.

Do these lights flicker?
NO – LEDs do not flicker to the human eye.

Can LEDs be dimmable?
YES – our product development team is bringing out a dimmable downlighter shortly.

Is this technology actually good for you?
Some of our new products produce a light that reduces the effects of SAD, which can be beneficial to certain people during the winter months or to people who are working for long periods in artificial light.