Advantages and drawbacks of LED interior lighting

Prolonging daylight with artificial light is sometimes the only way for developing populations to enable their younger generation to attend school. This is why the Light up the world association has been working for several years to provide these populations with autonomous systems (solar panels, batteries and LED modules) to provide "sufficient" light for reading and writing.

But this lighting, "sufficient" in this context, is a long way from the European standards currently in force for building interiors. Nevertheless, this promising technology offers an alternative to certain energy-hungry light sources, which are gradually being phased out (incandescent lamps), following the energy-saving policies implemented in recent years (new regulations, Grenelle de l'environnement). In fact, this is one of its main advantages, along with its long life, which will enable us to significantly reduce energy expenditure on lighting, initially for indoor applications and later, as performance improves, for general and public lighting applications.

The presence of LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) is very recent, with the first white LEDs coming onto the market around 1996. Their performance is evolving very rapidly (luminous flux, lighting quality, efficiency).

Despite this, there are still areas where their implementation is not advisable in terms of economic profitability (Caliper programs in the USA and Citadel, recently launched in France). That's why this article sets out the technical and economic elements needed to assess the real performance of this highly promising technology. We'll be focusing on indoor lighting.