While LED sales continue to rise, with millions more sold each year, more and more people are using LED lamps (light bulbs). However, uptake of LED lighting technology is slower than industry experts expected. People are hesitating to replace their existing lamps, even though LEDs offer high energy efficiency, long life expectancy, excellent color rendering, low ultra-violet output, and low lamp-surface temperature.

Does this hesitancy make sense? Well, yes and no.

The reasons for this slow adoption include:

• Relatively high purchase price. LED-lamp production volumes remain too low to allow manufacturers to quickly bring prices down.
• Low consumer awareness. Most people know little about the advantages of LED lighting technology.
• Reluctance to change. Incandescent lamps have been around more than 100 years, and many people don’t see why they should switch.
• Technology fatigue. Some consumers have only recently replaced their incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). The emergence of another new lighting technology may be a bit more than these people can handle—or afford.
• Availability: LED lamps are still not as easy to find as some other lighting types.

LED technology has enormous potential, but unfortunately, most of today’s LED lamps only offer some of these benefits (and few offer them all). Undeniably, the industry must create a set of standards for LED bulbs, so that consumers can receive all of the benefits touted not only by the technology, but by manufacturers as well.

So while the hesitation is understood as a result of a young and relatively unrefined technology, there is no denying the promise of LED technology and its potential to serve everyone’s lighting needs.

Why aren’t you making the switch to LED? We’d love to hear from you!