Welcome to LED world

What Are LEDs?
 LEDs are light emitting diodes - in layman's terms they're like electrical one-way only valves that glow instead of getting hot when a lot of pressure is put through them.
 They simply put out light (glowing photons) instead of heat like a normal diode on a PCB board.
 These diodes are also then sealed in resin to make them shockproof and waterproof.
 This is very different to the traditional filament bulbs that rely on a very thin piece of wire strung between two poles that burn very brightly when a current is passed  through it.
 The wire burns continuously whilst giving off quite a deal of wasted heat.
  Glass filament bulbs are thin and also fragile which keeps an industry alive replacing light bulbs.
  Advances from VHS to DVD get a lot more attention these days than cheaper, better lighting although the outdoor enthusiasts have recognize the incredible potential of  LED lighting particularly in the form of headlamps and torches.
 The difference at night time is incredible -you will see colors truly represented as they are seen during daytime - spiders and other insects eyes glowing back at you!
How long do LEDs generally last?
  The industry standard for LED is around 50000hrs.
  As all things do they will degrade initially up to 10% over the first 1000hrs of operation followed by a slower rate of decline to 30% loss after 50000hrs.
  Commercially available LEDs are generally blue LEDs with a fluorescence applied to them and its the fluorescence that degrades not the chip/diode itself.
  It also depends if the LEDs are being "driven" hard or voltage is variable.
  The types of commercial dome-typeLEDs available these days are called "static sensitive" and can be badly affected by variations in voltage and current - that's why     they're OK on batteries (if not run too low) but sensitive to other forms of power like 240vAC/12vAC transformers.