The first low-powered LEDs were developed in the early 1960s, and only produced light in the low, red frequencies of the spectrum.

[12] Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Nakamura were later awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the blue LED.

Also in 2008 in the United States and Canada, the Energy Star program began to label lamps that meet a set of standards for starting time, life expectancy, color, and consistency of performance.

As of 2016[update], in the opinion of Noah Horowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council, new standards proposed by the United States Department of Energy would likely mean most light bulbs used in the future would be LED.

[40] LEDs were in use at the Casino Breda in The Netherlands, the Vienna State Opera, and the venue for the Shanghai Grand Prix, for example.

[42] In 2008 Sentry Equipment Corporation in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, US, was able to light its new factory interior and exterior almost solely with LEDs.

[44] In 2009 the exceptionally large Christmas tree standing in front of the Turku Cathedral in Finland was hung with 710 LED lamps, each using 2 watts.

[48] In 2016 Government of India launched 'Ujala LED bulb scheme' to lower India's carbon footprint and save electricity, it distributed 370 million LED bulbs free, by doing so as of March 2022, which resulted in saving of ₹200 billion (US$2.3 billion) of middle class and poor household power bill.

[50] Following successive increases in efficacy, which had reached 210 lm/W on a production basis as of 2021,[51] this type has surpassed the performance of trichromatic LEDs.

The phosphors used in white light LEDs can give correlated color temperatures in the range of 2,200 K (dimmed incandescent) up to 7,000 K or more.

LED drivers may require additional components to meet regulations for acceptable AC line harmonic current.

LED lamps run cooler than their predecessors since there is no electric arc or tungsten filament, but they can still cause burns.

The term "efficiency droop" refers to the decrease in luminous efficacy of LEDs as the electric current increases.

[70] Unlike other lighting technologies, LED emission tends to be directional (or at least Lambertian), which can be either advantageous or disadvantageous, depending on requirements.

For applications where non-directional light is required, either a diffuser is used, or multiple individual LED emitters are used to emit in different directions.

Energy Star specifications requires LED lamps to typically drop less than 10% after 6,000 or more hours of operation, and in the worst case not more than 15%.

[79] In the U.S. the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 effectively bans the manufacturing and importing of most current incandescent lamps.

[80] The Biden administration finalized efficiency regulations in 2023 that require 45 lm/W lighting and will save consumers $3 billion per year in electricity costs.

Experiments revealed surprising performance and production of vegetables and ornamental plants under LED light sources.

[citation needed] White LED lamps have achieved market dominance in applications where high efficiency is important at low power levels.

[84] LEDs are now able to match the brightness and warmer color temperature that consumers desire from their outdoor lighting system.

However, there have been concerns that the use of LED street lighting with predominantly blue light can cause eye damage, and that some LEDs switch on and off at twice mains frequency, causing malaise in some people, and possibly being misleading with rotating machinery due to stroboscopic effects.

[85] UV LEDs have grown rapidly in recent years because they can be set to emit specific wavelengths of light.

Unlike gas discharge or fluorescent lamps, which are limited by their materials, LED wavelengths are determined by the band gap width.

However, currently there are no standardized testing procedures set by the Department of Energy in the United States to prove these assertions by each manufacturer.

[97] A typical domestic LED lamp is stated to have an "average life" of 15,000 hours (15 years at 3 hours/day), and to support 50,000 switch cycles.

Color rendering is not identical to that of incandescent lamps, which emit close to perfect black-body radiation, as does the sun.

A measurement unit called CRI is used to record how a light source renders eight color sample chips, on a scale from 0 to 100.

Thermal management of high-power LEDs is a significant factor in design of solid state lighting equipment.

[111] The long life of LEDs, expected to be about 50 times that of the most common incandescent lamps and significantly longer than fluorescent types, is advantageous for users but will affect manufacturers as it reduces the market for replacements in the distant future.