LED outdoor lighting has become the standard in which all other lighting is now compared to. Well known for its energy-efficiency capacities, longevity and eco-friendliness, LED’s are the first choice in outdoor lighting. Though the term itself has become as commonly used as the product itself, do you know what it means?
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode and is defined as a semiconductor light source. LEDs create light, as outlined by the Edison Tech. Center,“by electroluminescence in a semiconductor material. Electroluminescence is the phenomenon of a material emitting light when electric current or an electric field is passed through it. LEDs are made using p-n junctions. As electrons pass through one crystal to the other they fill electron holes.” They emit photons which result in light! LED is available in many different colors. Different elements are used to create LED’s variance of color, such as gallium arsenide in making red and infrared LED, gallium nitride in making blue LED, and Yttrium aluminum garnet in making white LED’s.
Why Cree?
What sets our LED’s apart from the rest is our exclusive high quality fixtures made just for Outdoor Lighting Perspectives locations, and the use of Cree LED lighting technologies. Cree has revolutionized the lighting industry with high-quality, energy-efficient LED lighting. The Cree advantage begins with mixing the light from red and Cree unsaturated yellow LEDs which are among the highest-performing LEDs on the market. Every Cree fixture is color tuned as a complete system for the utmost consistency in performance. The result is beautiful white light with superior color accuracy and consistency, Cree LED’s also use significantly less energy than traditional lighting and that’s not all…
An Added Benefit
Researchers at Cree recently stumbled upon an added benefit of this LED product that can be added to the long list of reasons using LED in the landscape is a smart choice; they discovered insects are less likely to be attracted to LED outdoor lighting than other genres of outdoor lighting!
In a story published on the Cree Revolution Blog, Gary Trott, a product development innovator for Cree LED Lighting speaks candidly speaks about how Cree LED’s can reduce the number of insects getting into your lighting fixtures, and also how using LED can reduce the amount of insects attracted to your illuminated outdoor living areas. When he set out to help develop this innovative LED, bug ingress prevention was NOT a design goal, but he quickly noticed a significant decrease in the amount of insects present in a LR6 down light installed above the door he walks through every day. After being in place for four years, the light had almost zero bugs in it! This sparked his curiosity which led to research and findings from Marianne Shockley Cruz Ph.D. and Rebecca Lindner at the University Of Georgia Department Of Entomology. The paper that details the results of this groundbreaking research is titled “Insect Vision: Ultraviolet, Color, and LED Light.” In essence, the research indicates that since insects are attracted to UV light, and Cree LEDs emit little or no power in the UV spectrum insects just aren’t interested and a less interested bug means fewer bugs present where Cree LED’S are used, period.
For Kansas City homeowners, this news is another welcomed benefit to the already long list of positives LED lighting has. Attracting less bugs into your outdoor living environment means less of a nuisance and less chance of being bitten or stung by an insect that could lead to an allergic reaction, harbor an illness or vector-borne disease, such as the mosquito!
Contact Outdoor Lighting Perspectives of Kansas City today to learn more about our versatile and beneficial LED outdoor lighting designs
