Why have past attempts to create general-illumination LEDs failed?
Engineers started by trying to retrofit existing fixtures, working from a flawed principle of “lowest initial cost” as the primary design criteria, and then claiming such fixtures would last much longer than the existing fixtures they were seeking to replace. Further, existing „non LED‟ light fixtures are generally very low cost, typically have a high operating temperature, and have little or no suitable fixture design to thermally dissipate the heat that is built up. LED companies made the fundamental error of designing general illumination product around a premise of “form over function” so that the fixture had the appearance of the existing “non LED” fixtures, without addressing the fundamental enemy of the LED – heat. The issue of heat and LEDs is addressed in greater detail below. Critically, the companies failed to understand and respect the nature of an LED, and as a result applied flawed engineering principles. In most cases, early designers failed to make the distinction regar
