Please scroll down to view technical information for additional manufacturers. i-LED Technical Information Q: What is an LED? An LED is a light emitting diode. It’s basically a computer chip which glows when an electrical charge passes through a silicone joint. Q: What makes it different than a normal light bulb? LED lighting is quite different. It will last about 150 times as long as a normal light bulb, and it only requires a fraction of the power. LED lighting does not produce any harmful Ultra Violet rays so it is better for lighting precious items of artwork or fabrics. And because LEDs do not generate any heat in the light beam, they can be used to light cosmetics and other heat sensitive chemicals. Q: Can you use LED lighting for interior and exterior applications? Yes, in fact, LED lighting is perfect for outdoor applications where the lumen output does not need to be so high. And it won’t attract bugs outdoors, because insects can not see the LED light. Q: How does an LED light fixture get its power? There are two types of LEDs. One requires a constant current, it could be 8, 12 or 24 volts of DC low-voltage current. The other type, which is usually a higher quality LED, requires a constant voltage of 350 milli-amps, or 700 milli-amps at either 12, 24 or 48 volts DC current. The power devices for LEDs are called Drivers and are used to convert the branch circuit voltage to the required voltage for the specific LED. Q: What colors are available in LEDs? Normal static colors are RED, GREEN and BLUE. But by combining these three colors in what we call an RGB lighting fixture, you can obtain all the colors of the rainbow. Today there are also three colors of White LED available at this time. The warm white LED is 3200 degrees Kelvin, the Natural White LED is 4500 degrees Kelvin, and the Cool White LED is 5500 degrees Kelvin. Q: What beam spreads are available for the LED light fixtures? From i-LED, you have a variety of choices for beam spreads in most light fixtures. They include 10, 30, 50, 70 and 120 degrees. Does I-LED  produce their own LEDs? No. i-LED is a fixture manufacturer. They purchase LEDs from the worlds top LED manufacturers. And they purchase only the very best LEDs available at the time your fixtures are manufactured. Depending on the particular time, the best LEDs might be from Cree, or Lumiled or one of many other quality manufacturers. We don’t know which brand of LED will be used for your fixtures, but you can be assured it will be the best available at that particular time. Q: What makes i-LED light fixtures better than those from other manufacturers? i-LED has mastered the technology of heat-sinking LEDs, which is the essential requirement for long life and high quality. Each light fixture from i-LED starts out as a solid block of metal. Only the smallest quantity of metal is machined out to make room for the diodes. The rest of the metal is used as part of the heat sink device. This is your assurance of full life and high output for the LEDs. Q: How are LED light fixtures wired in the field? As a general rule, if the LED requires a constant current driver, the individual fixtures will be wired in series. If the LEDs require constant voltage, the fixtures will be wired in parallel. There are some exceptions to this rule, so please consult your representative for this information. Q: How much light can you get from LED light fixtures? Although this is improving every day, at the current time, the LEDs we use have the following lumen outputs. A 1 watt Cool White LED produces 80 lumens. A 2 watt Cool white LED produces 140 lumens. And a 3 watt Cool White LED produces 165 lumens. Q: For light fixtures with multiple LEDs, Which wattage is best? Because of the lumen output of each LED, it is better to use 3 x 1 watt LEDs rather than 1 x 3 watt LED. Each of the 1 watt LEDs will produce 80 lumens for a total of 240 lumens. A single 3 watt LED will only produce 165 lumens. And the 1 watt LED will last almost twice as long as the three watt LED. Q: Are all i-LED light fixtures dimmable? All i-Led fixtures are dimmable if you use a dimmable driver or controller. Although for smaller wattage LEDs it sometimes doesn’t make sense to dim them. Currently the availability of dimmable drivers is limited in the USA. This will change as companies continue to offer more products. i-LED offers a dimmable controller for all of their products, but you must have at least 6 x 1 watt LED’s to use this dimming controller. Q: Do the i-LED fixtures have the drivers in the fixture or are they remote mounted? LED drivers for US voltages are larger than the European drivers, so many of the fixtures which are shown with integral drivers, must use remote drivers for the US voltages. This will change as US driver manufacturers continue to reduce the size of their products.