What are LED's?
L-E-D stands for Light Emitting Diode.
Get the full explanation courtesy of Wikipedia here
Why are LED's so much more expensive than regular lights?
Without getting too complicated there are a few things to keep in mind. 1st and foremost is that fact that LED is still a relatively new technology. You can expect pricing to come down over time like anything else.
We are also not talking apples to apples here. LEDs and light bulbs are not the same thing although they both produce light. Contrary to an ordinary light bulb, LEDs require a sophisticated heat management system to dissipate the heat as well as lenses. If you were to use a normal light bulb it wouldn't have any of these feature but they would be built into the fixture you were using depending on the application.
This is also why many LED's are built straight into the fixtures and over time that trend will only continue, thus eventually when you go to buy a new lighting fixture the LEDs will be built in even at the residential level.
There is another reality about LED which is it's life span. Unlike a regular light bulb that will traditionally last 500 to 6000 hours on average, LED's last on average 50 000 to 100 000 which in any application is a bonus. Read here for more detail on LED life span. One last reality is that because of the life span, manufacturers have no choice but to make a bit of money when they sell LED products. Think about it, 50 000 lamp life is 24 hrs a day 7 days a week for 5.7 years...
If your worried about your initial investment think of this. You're doing your part to save the environment, your maintenance costs just dropped down to near zero and depending on your usage you will actually make money off of your investment in as little as 1 year! Don't believe it? Go to the Energy Savings Calculator and find out for yourself.
What is LEED certification?
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria....Read more
Is it true that electrical companies offer rebates & or grants for energy efficient technologies?
Yes they do! Most Electric companies are still studying the effects on their grids with LED technology, but they do offer grants and or rebates based on special inspections. All you have to do is contact your local Hydro-Electric company and they will refer you to the appropriate department. Our distribution partners would also be happy to assist & support to navigate this faily simple process. We have seen projects approved in as little as 48 hours!
How can manufacturers claim 50,000 to 100,000 life for LEDs?
Well, it's a fair question and one that does require a considerable amount of an explanation. As Lumileds, the manufacturing arm for LEDs by the Philips Corporation and maker of the Luxeon, rebel & K2 LEDs used in most of Acclaim's fixtures puts it...
"Philips Lumileds uses the Weibull distribution function, a universally-respected statistical technique, to predict the useful lifetimes of power LEDs based on experimental data. The Weibull function, developed in 1951 by Waloddi Weibull, has proved effective in reducing the amount of experimental work required - and therefore the costs and time involved to model the behavior of systems or populations containing large numbers of units. It has been applied successfully throughout many industries...." Source: Lumileds WP12
If you want more information on this, please click here for the White Paper on LED life provided by Lumileds.