LED lighting will become mainstream

The latest news shows that inefficient incandescent lamps will fully exit the US market. According to the incandescent lamp ban passed by the United States Congress, the 40- and 60-watt traditional incandescent lamps most favored by American families will stop production and supply. This move aims to promote energy-saving halogen lamps, fluorescent lamps, LED lamps and other higher energy efficiency bulbs. With the intense competition in the lighting market, the same energy-efficient LED lights have been less than $10.

In many regions, as people understand the characteristics of LED lights and their lower and lower prices, US manufacturers and retailers (such as Home Depot, Staples, Wal-Mart, and IKEA) are maximizing their market share. Many analysts predict that LED lighting will bring a epoch-making change to the home market. Market data in the second half of 2013 shows that most American consumers are aware of the advantages of LED lights.

With an average life of 20,000 hours and a warranty period of more than 3 years, LED lights can improve the energy efficiency of homes, businesses, and industries, helping users save on electricity bills, which in turn are more conducive to limiting power plant emissions and maintaining the power grid. Compared with traditional incandescent lamps, LED lamps are expected to have a power saving capability of more than 80%, which means that users can recover the purchase cost within 5-10 years. Commercial and industrial cost recovery periods can be as low as 2-4 years.

Major countries and regions around the world have successively introduced policies and regulations for the complete elimination of traditional incandescent and fluorescent lamps, including production, import, and sales. However, ordinary users have been accustomed to the consumption of incandescent lamps, and it will take time for LED lamps to go into millions of households.

Although the energy-saving fluorescent lamp has a certain share in the market, there are also obvious defects. This type of bulb takes some time to warm up, is not dimmable, emits harsh light, and the bulb contains mercury and cannot be recycled. Therefore, fluorescent lamps are neither "green" nor convenient.

Pruitt and Cinquengen, research analysts of world-renowned information and analysis company HIS, predict that the sales of LED lamps will increase year by year until it reaches its peak in 2019. They believe that the global sales of LED lighting equipment will increase from about 3.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2013 to over 7 billion U.S. dollars in 2016.

Just in the past November, Cree, headquartered in Durham, England, launched a price war on LED lights through the television advertisement for the US market. Industry competitors have responded.

The price of LED lights has been hovering around $20 for years. Today, Cree's 40 and 60 watts of energy efficiency, and can regulate and distribute "soft white" LED lights Home Depot's price is close to 5.97 US dollars. Energy-efficient 65 watts with "soft white" indoor floodlights, the price has been determined to be less than $10. Cree has announced that the "soft white" lamp with an energy efficiency of 75 watts will land in the US market in February next year.

At the time of the author’s writing, the main competition in the US market came from Cree and Philips. And HP's "green intelligence" program, because it is assembled in China, is very easy to promote in the Chinese market. In addition, OSRAM, Shangyu Lighting, and Switch have all made great strides.

But when it comes to price competition, analysts say that the margins of home lighting have always been low, and the future may be further compressed unless production and sales reach a certain height. Private-label products will have certain advantages through sales channels such as IKEA and Wal-Mart.

Lux Paradigm analyst Palavi said: "No one expected the price of LED lights to quickly fall by 10 US dollars, which is a great impact on the entire market." Of course, there are industry analysts believe that market competition will accelerate technological progress And prices continue to fall.