We hear a lot and the market is abuzz about LED Lighting solutions. However, Street Lighting/industrial Bay lights/ Retrofit Home Lighting and other AC/DC applications in particular have yet to penetrate to the broader deign/manufacturing community. There are a lot of technical challenges involved which negate the inherent advantages that a LED Lamp offers. For instance:
The electrolytic cap mostly used at the output stages of the driver circuitry does not have a life of 50,000 hours as the LED would claim. If the components on driver board would fail much before the LEDs do, whats the USP of the product? Some vendors have now started mentioning that the driver sections are field-replaceable. Does that make any sense?
Secondly, the ripple currents in the output. How does that affect the life and durability of the driving circuit and the LED Lamps.
Finally, there are several other issues around the driver and lamps: the heat sinks for Street Lights, isolation magnetics, thermal management and protection for the electronics; The optics required for LEDs.
All the above concerns are prohibitive for designers and Lighting companies planning to foray into LED. Finally, look at the cost of the LED Product as against Flouroscent lamps and things start looking very bleak for the new age technology.
Commercial and technical viability is so essential for fledgling companies to embrace the LED solutions.
