How do LEDs Use Such Little Power?

LED lights are able to use such a small amount of electricity to create light compared to incandescent bulbs because they produce that light in a very different way. LED lighting, such as LED recessed fixtures, LED strip lights and LED light bars, use a diode, a special type of semiconductor material, across which they pass electricity. This process causes electrons to behave in such a way that they emit little particles of light called photons. With the right design, the diode emits visible light through this process, called electroluminescence. Compared with incandescent lighting that relies on running current through a filament to get it very hot and thus excite its electrons, thereby allowing them to also emit photos of light, electroluminescence is remarkably efficient at converting electricity into light.

In fact, LEDs can produce between 40 and 100 lumens per watt, and that efficiency is rapidly increasing. Even at the low end, that is three times more efficient than incandescent lights, all because such a high percentage of the electricity that LEDs consume is converted directly into light.