Abstract
Lighting is an indispensable energy end use of man. A significant number people in developing countries live without electric lighting and depend on oil-based lamps. Globally, lighting consumes substantial amount of energy and is a major contributor to green house emissions. Conventional electric lighting systems such as incandescent lamps are highly inefficient and waste energy while the fluorescent/CFL lamps contain toxic chemicals like mercury. Incandescent lamps with short lifespan as well as the fluorescent/CFL lamps pose environmental waste disposal problems (e.g.). The use of renewable energy resource such as solar and wind power systems for example as sources of power for the most efficient and long life lighting source such as high-brightness light emitting diodes (LEDs) (also known as solid state lighting) would reduce global energy consumption for lighting by half, with corresponding reduction in green house emissions. In developing countries solar powered solid state lighting (SPSSL) would ensure access to electric lighting by the disperse population who may not be connected to the national grid in the near feature. In this article we elaborately review the upcoming solid state lighting technology. The physics and principles of operation of LEDs are also reviewed. The impact of this new lighting technology on developing countries in the areas of commerce, education, health and environmental impacts in comparison to conventional lighting technologies is the main thrust of this review.
Highlights
Lighting, artificial or natural, is one of the most important energy end use that man requires to carry out his day-to-day activities
Developing countries are far from enjoying the benefit of electric lighting as a third of her population still leave in the dark with no hope of electric lighting in the near future
In urban centers of developing countries perennial power outage due to inadequate power generation has forced most of the people to use electricity as a secondary source of lighting with a larger population depending on kerosene lamps, which pose threat to health and environments, apart from causing deaths due to fire accidents
Summary
Artificial or natural, is one of the most important energy end use that man requires to carry out his day-to-day activities. The need for efficient electric lighting has led to the transformation from incandescent lamps to fluorescent lamps and using solid state light emitting diodes. Solid State lighting using light emitting diode (SSL-LED) is a new energy efficient option in the lighting industry This technology promises superior attributes such as longer lifespan, and higher energy conversion efficiency of 95% (including driver losses) (Gordon, 2008) compared to incandescent and fluorescent lamps. If SSL-LED are used in conjunction with solar panels as stand-alone solar powered systems, the impact will be felt most in poor rural villages of developing countries (Table 1) that may not be served by utility grid in the near future This is because the growth rate of conventional electricity generation technologies is slow compared to population growth in most of these developing countries. With improvement in the technologies and the understanding of the physics of LEDs and solar cell, their efficacies have been increasing while the cost is decreasing
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