Mitigating energy wastage of light-emitting diodes using discretised multilevel pulsation

There is a recent trend and growing popularity of using the technique of light pulsation for achieving the dimming control of light-emitting diodes. However, it is found that such a dimming control technique can result in a significant power loss in terms of luminous efficacy. This contradicts the original motive of energy saving through illumination dimming. Total energy consumed for lighting is an overwhelming 8% of depleting energy resources. A potential loss of 2% or more of these resources could go unnoticed owing to poor handling of dimming technology. It is demonstrated that, driving the LEDs with discretised multilevel pulsation, can achieve a quasi-optimally-efficient state of dimming control with a saving of up to 26.7% of the luminous efficacy. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2009.link_to_subscribed_fulltex