The discussion of Thomas Edison is virtually inseparable from any conversation about the development of practical electric lighting. For most people Thomas Edison is the inventor figure who conceived and implemented the entire concept of the light bulbs we still use today. This isn’t exactly how it happened but Edison did have major contributions to the field of electric lighting and we can probably credit him with first developing a long lasting -and thus practical- filament for use in incandescent light bulbs around the year 1879 when he conducted a successful test with one of his designs which lasted 13.5 hours.
Today work continues on developing new and improved light bulbs that last even longer and have increased efficiency characteristics. One foray into this arena is the Light emitting Diode light bulb. LEDs have been around for sometime but only recently have started to be produced at a price that make them feasible for some people to use for normal, everyday home illumination. They are still quite pricey but often use considerably less energy for the amount of light they produce and thus are attractive when the life cycle cost is taken into account.
One challenge which designers and makers of LED light bulbs face is the need to keep the temperature level of the light emitting diode units at an acceptable level otherwise efficiency is greatly diminished. Since these types of lights have a different thermal profile compared to traditional light bulbs the ways they can be utilized differ somewhat in order to keep temperatures in acceptable ranges. Some light emitting diode bulbs feature some form of heat-sink to help dissipate excess thermal energy.
Some of the most common current applications of LED lighting technology is in the automotive sector as well as flashlights, flood lights, emergency lights and numerous other applications. A big pioneer of LED style lighting in the automotive industry has been the German car manufacturer Audi. The 2011 Audi A8 model was the first to feature all light emitting diode illumination for night driving as well as daytime running lamps.
As LED technology improves and new breakthroughs are made you can count on seeing more of these unique products making their way into the market place in various forms. You can already find all kinds of products for the home that use light emitting diode technology however you should see increases in quality and reductions in purchase price as the market matures.