Nowadays, we live in a world of displays, which can be widely seen on laptops, mobile phones, TVs, cinema screens, LED screens for stages, ceremonies, and various types of events. As the use of displays continues to rise, energy saving becomes a hot topic and means a lot to our green planet. So the comparison of energy saving features of different displays never stops, especially between the two most popular displays, the LCD screens and LED screens. Here in this article, we’ll give a quick guide over the two display technology, what they are, their features and energy saving performance, and of course, to help you get an overall understanding of the two different display technologies.
LCD and LED are the two main display technologies on the market. LCD stands for liquid crystal display, and LED is abbreviation for light emitting diode. So how they works? Let’s see the detailed descriptions.
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but instead use a backlight or reflector to produce images in color or monochrome.
LG’s LCD monitor
An LED display utilizes an array of LEDs to form the pixels of the screen. By controlling the colors and brightness of individual LEDs, we acquire images or videos on an LED display. Since the LEDs are self-luminous, so there is no need of backlight on an LED display.
Indoor LED screen
LED itself is an energy efficient and long lasting light source, hence it’s no doubt that an LED display outperforms an LCD in energy saving. Let’s see the detailed reasons.
Kinglight provides various LEDs for screen manufacturing
Much less overall power consumption:
LEDs are directional, which means they emit light in one direction and less brightness works well when compared with other light source. According to test, a 32 inch LED display consumes 10 watts less power than an LCD screen with the same size. If the size increases, an LED display will save more energy. And studies by the U.S. department of energy shows an LED display can save up to 50% – 70% power consumption than an LCD screen.
Precise brightness control:
An LED display allows precise brightness control over its individual LED pixels. This means we can further reduce power consumption by flexibly adjusting brightness of individual LEDs according to ambient brightness.
But on the other side, the brightness of the backlight for an LCD screen can be only adjusted entirely to suit the ambient brightness, which means a wast of energy on the area of an LCD screen with bright ambient light.
Long lasting and eco-friendly:
An LED display can run 10 years or even longer if being well maintained. It has much longer life than an LCD screen. Thus, using an LED display can significantly reduce the rate of replacement. Hence, less material consumption means eco-friendly and less harm to our planet.
It’s obvious that an LED display excels in energy efficiency. But LCD, as the most popular display on the market, it also has own advantage. So which one to choose? It’s never a question about which one is better but the purpose and usage of the screen.
If you’re going to use your screen in a well-lit environment, an LED display can be a better choice since it can feature much higher brightness and allows precise brightness adjustment. That’s why we usually see LED signage outdoors but not an LCD screen.
If you’re going to put up a large format screen ,then it’s better to use an LED display since it’s usually composed of LED panels and can be easily assembled as large as you need.
How long you’re going to use is also a factor you should consider. An LED display excels in long term operation than an LCD screen and gets a substantial saving of the electricity bill for you.
An LED display costs much higher than an LCD screen with the same specifications. If you have limited initial fund to invest in, it’s better to use an LCD screen instead. But an LED display will save money in the long run since it lasts much longer and saves a lot of power consumption.
