Diode Laser Lighting Could Compete With LED, Research Suggests

From EarthTechling's Kristy Hessman :

New research shows that diode lasers could eventually compete with light emitting diodes (LEDs) for home and commercial lighting solutions. Sandia National Laboratories recently asked participants to rate various LED and diode laser lighting scenarios and found that in some situations consumers preferred the diode lasers.

LEDs are commonly thought of as the most energy-efficient replacements for the century-old incandescent bulbs. What is not often known is that LEDs lose efficiency at currents higher than 0.5 amps. The diode laser actually improves at higher currents, which means it can provide more light than LEDs at higher amps.

Not much research had been done with the diode lasers because of a widespread assumption that the lighting it produced was unpleasant to the human eye, according to Sandia. But the studies showed there was a statistically significant preference for the diode-laser-based white light over the warm and cool LED-based white light. There was no statistically significant preference between the diode-laser-based and either the neutral LED-based or incandescent white light.

The results aren't expected to cause an immediate shift to diode lasers, according to researchers, as diodes are more expensive to fabricate and both yellow and green laser diodes have a ways to go. The warm white diode laser light that was preferable to consumers is created by a combination of the four laser beams -- yellow, blue, green and red.

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Comments

[vetxcl]

08:29 PM on 11/14/2011

Higher amps and higher current means higher energy.
This article is evidence of green washing by AOLpo. Lasers aren't green, but it appears that everyone wants to market their products as green nowadays.

[pbr56]

10:21 AM on 11/17/2011

I wish they compared the power use between the leds and lasers, but just because they can handle more power doesn't mean that they use more power for a given amount of light. Most led lights use several diodes to produce light.

[Genders]

09:59 PM on 12/04/2011

No it's not. Lasers diodes are at least twice as efficient as red or blue LEDS. They have higher current and power density, but for the same watts they produce twice the light.

[WESmith]

11:39 AM on 11/13/2011

All of the lights in my home are LED.
They are powered by a single 12V battery
and a 45 watt solar collector from Harbor Freight.
These lights are bright enough.
I don't need higher amperage.
I don't need to pay for electricity.
My father built an energy efficiency home in 1951
with all fluorescent lights. He saved a lot of
money for 50 plus years. Anyone can save
alot of money by becoming energy efficient.

[Genders]

09:59 PM on 12/04/2011

Cool. Check out this site for even cheaper solar panels:

http://www.sunelec.com/ 75 cents per Wp. 50 cents for laminates.
cheapest new solar panels 1-2$/Wp http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm

[oneeasyrider]

03:01 AM on 11/13/2011

Mean't shouldn't be much concern.

[oneeasyrider]

03:00 AM on 11/13/2011

If LEDs lose efficiency at currents higher than 0.5 amp that should be much concern for residential use as it translates to roughly 50 watts.

[SolarPowerGuy]

11:53 AM on 11/14/2011

I don't think you run 110 volts through an LED, though! More like 1.5 volts. P = I x V = 0.5 amps x 1.5 volts = 0.75 watts.

That doesn't sound like much light, does it? Well, it's more than you might think. I wish people would switch over to using lumens when talking about light bulbs. Old-fashioned incandescent bulbs had an efficiency of about 20 lumens per watt. The new LED lights have efficiencies of around 100 lumens per watt.

So that 0.75-watt LED I mentioned above? It's as bright as a 4.5-watt incandescent bulb. Put a dozen of these LED's together in a single package (they're small enough), and you have the equivalent of a 60-watt incandescent bulb, drawing just over 10 watts.

[oneeasyrider]

12:26 PM on 11/14/2011

Know you're right, SPG. I'm guilty of using quick reference 100 watts = roughly 1 amp but the formula is better and more accurate. Guess I wasn't clear either, meant to suggest 50 or as you point out 75 watts is a lot of light.

Not certain, however, the reference to lumens is so easy because most people don't have a reference yet and referring to lumens is sort of complicated. Anyway, I understand what you're saying. I currently have about roughly 50 florescents throughout the house and none are rated higher than 15 watts but definitely emit plenty of light. My house is always bright and well lit up.

Thanks for your detailed post. Always appreciate your comments.

[Genders]

09:38 PM on 11/12/2011

The problem with laser light has been speckle. That is the holographic circles of interference you see. The other problem is that blue and green laser has been too expensive. But as they diode laser get better, laser will probably be more efficient than LEDS and the speckle can be solved by with diffuses. The lifetime of laser is almost always less than LED in the same materials, but even that has lasers at 20,000 hours. To the user, this will be a minor concern.

[Boobuzuela]

08:42 PM on 11/12/2011

I just knew as a kid growing up that ONE DAY I'd have a hand held laser.

Today I'm a stocker at Walmart. :(

[NunyaBus99]

11:18 PM on 11/12/2011

Hey at least you have the laser! In this economy be happy you have a job too. If I ever lost my job and I had to choose unemployment or stocker at Walmart, I would choose to be a stocker.

[achiphunter]

01:54 AM on 11/13/2011

Keep at it there is allways a diode at the end of the tunnel !

[Boobuzuela]

02:21 PM on 11/13/2011

All I can see is a large bandgap followed by an excruciating avalanche.

[Edward Standley]

06:23 PM on 11/12/2011

I did not know that there were yellow lasers. Learn somethin' new every day.

[SolarPowerGuy]

08:47 PM on 11/12/2011

You should be able to make a semiconductor laser of any color you want, by tuning the band gaps.

There have been yellow gas lasers for a long time. A popular He-Ne laser line is 594 nm.

[rpr]

03:03 PM on 11/12/2011

White LEDs are generally a blue LED combined with phosphors that convert some of the light down to longer wavelengths. That would work the same with blue lasers.

[cagog]

02:29 PM on 11/12/2011

Now the iPhone 5 better be charged by lasers.