If you’ve recently found yourself stood in the lightbulb aisle, your old, dead bulb in one hand, and you’re faced with a perplexing array of LED bulbs to choose from, then don’t panic. Specialists in LED light fittings and bulbs will help guide you through.
The old style, energy inefficient incandescent lightbulbs, that have been a dominant fixture in our lives for so long, are going away. In their place we have LED (light emitting diode) bulbs. LEDs are a completely different technology than incandescent bulbs and that change comes with a learning curve.
But LEDs also come with big benefits and they give you new ways to more easily control the light in your space. In an age where we are all more aware of being energy efficient and reducing our carbon footprint, LED bulbs are some of the.
We have some tips to help you learn what you need to know to avoid ending up with lights that hurt your eyes or just make you feel tired. Being a little more conscious about what lights you buy and when you use them also could improve your sleeping habits.
Old incandescent bulbs were pretty simple. They contained a filament that was heated with electricity until it glowed. LEDs are semiconductors, like the things in your computer. That opens up a new world of possibilities that comes with new terms and many different choices. LED bulbs last 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs and use at least 75% less energy. They are a bit more expensive upfront, but they'll help your budget in the long run.
These energy savings also are important for addressing climate change. The flexibility of LEDs open up a whole new world of creative possibilities, along with their energy savings and long bulb life.
It's really important to think about how you want a lighted space to feel. Think about what happens in that room. That can affect what lightbulbs, or even what light fixtures, you buy. When you're sitting on a sofa relaxing or watching TV, you don't want high glaring lights right on your face, in that space, you'll want recessed fixtures that are dimmable. But in a kitchen you want to flood the space with light. It's a work area where you want to see things clearly.
In the past, most people picked lightbulbs based on watts — usually 40, 60 or 100 watts. Many think of watts as how bright the bulb is, but watts actually refer to the energy the bulb consumes. Since LEDs need less energy to produce the same amount of light, those bulbs have really low wattage numbers.
A simple trick to figure out what LED wattage bulb you require is to multiply the stated watts by five. For example, an LED bulb that says 12W will give you an equivalent of a 60W incandescent bulb.
The real measure for light output is lumens. The higher the number, the brighter the light. You can find bulbs in stores that range from 450 up to 2600 lumens. Manufacturers often use both terms on their boxes, such as ‘equivalent to a 60W incandescent bulb’ or ‘800 lumens’.
If you’re looking to replace your old lighting with energy efficient LED bulbs and light fittings, visit us today.