things to consider before buying LED bulbs
The reasons why are compelling — they last much longer than incandescent bulbs, provide interesting features and can save you money on your electricity bill. Besides, many incandescent bulbs — like the 100-watt incandescent — are being phased out, so eventually you’ll need to make the switch anyway.
Forget what you know about incandescents — your watts are no good here.
When shopping for bulbs, you’re probably accustomed to looking for watts, an indication of how bright the bulb will be. The brightness of LEDs, however, is determined a little differently.
Contrary to common belief, wattage isn’t an indication of brightness, but a measurement of how much energy the bulb draws. For incandescents, there is an accepted correlation between the watts drawn and the brightness, but for LEDs, watts aren’t a great predictor of how bright the bulb will be. (The point, after all, is that they draw less energy.)
Choosing the right color LED
You can always count on incandescents providing a warm, yellowish hue. But LEDs come in a wide range of colors.
As shown off by the Philips Hue, LED bulbs are capable of displaying an impressive color range, from purple to red, to a spectrum of whites and yellows. For the home, however, you’re likely looking for something similar to the light that incandescents produce.
How to Choose the Best LED Light Bulb for Any Room in Your Home
Every room in your home is different.
You likely have heard that sunlight gives us energy, but did you know that light bulbs work in a similar way? Bulbs that emit blue light waves produce serotonin, which makes us focused, awake, and alert. Bulbs that don’t emit blue light waves allow for our brain to produce melatonin, which makes us relaxed, drowsy, and ready for a good nights sleep.
Lower temperature bulbs produce warm-whites, similar to a fire, while medium temperature bulbs produce neutral-whites, and higher temperature bulbs produce cool-whites or mimic daylight.
it is also a common misconception that the brightness of a light bulb is measured in Watts. Watts actually measure energy usage, while Lumens measure brightness.
LED Lighting for Bedroom Use
In our bedrooms, most of us want the atmosphere to be relaxed, calm, and peaceful. Avoiding blue light waves in the bedroom will keep your circadian rhythm from confusing the light in your bedroom with the natural light outside. This allows your brain to produce the melatonin needed for a comfortable sleep. Are you a nighttime reader? If you have a bedside reading lamp or plan on buying one, soft blue or neutral tones are better for reading specific fixtures, since the cool-white color creates a high contrast with the page
LED Lighting for Home Office Use
When lighting a home office, we want to make sure that the lights are maximizing our ability to be productive in the space provided. Putting cool-white lights in the office that mimic daylight will increase serotonin production keeping you focused, alert, and energized. Make sure to choose a place that won’t create unwanted glares on your computer screen. You may also want to consider LED Desk Lamps which offer great task lighting and the ability to switch color temperature on demand.
Things You Need to Know Before Switching to LEDs
We all know that LEDs are way better for the environment than their incandescent forefathers. But that doesn’t mean you’ve been convinced to make the switch. If you’re still teetering on the fence between LED and incandescent
Making the Switch to LEDs Is Easier Than You Think
To get the benefits of LED without replacing all your existing fixtures, all you need to do is replace all your incandescent screw-in lightbulbs with screw-in LED bulbs. Just make sure that you replace your incandescent bulb with a comparable LED that will match the performance of the previous bulb.
LED Lights Last And That Will Save You Money
At first, it might not seem like LEDs are going to be a lucrative switch. They are more expensive than incandescent bulbs, but the prices are dropping. And the way you should really think about it is that LEDs are more of a long term investment. So, while the upfront cost might be a little higher, the payback time is worth it. For example, if you spent $15 on a 60-Watt equivalent LED bulb, the payback will be within a couple of years.
At the end of the day, the technology behind LEDs–the diodes themselves, heat sinking and so on–allows them to extensively outlast incandescent bulbs. Some LEDs can last two decades (or even longer) with average use before they begin to dim, as opposed to an approximate two year life for incandescents. LEDs also experience more of a gradual decline than the sudden burnout experienced with incandescents.
LEDs Use Up A Lot Less Energy
The big picture: LED lighting converts 95% of energy consumed into light, unlike incandescent bulbs, which convert only 10% of energy for light. The 90% of energy remaining is wasted as heat.
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO LED LIGHTING IN RESIDENTIAL APPLICATION
LED lighting solutions are on the rise. There are more LED products and alternatives available on the market already than there ever have been for traditional incandescent and compact fluorescent (CFL), energy efficient bulbs.
While some LED products might just look like any other light bulb or fluorescent tube, the variety of products, new terminology introduced by the lighting industry and the fact that LED’s are a different technology from what we have been used to for decades can make the switch to LED lighting quite challenging.
Why make the change to LED?
Besides being much more energy efficient than incandescent and CFL options, thus able to provide significant energy savings, they last much longer, don’t contain Mercury like CFL’s and provide a lot more options for brightness and light appearance (warm vs. cool).
Terminology
When buying traditional incandescent light bulbs, all we needed to pay attention to was the bulb shape, wattage which indicated the brightness of the bulb and the screw base size to make sure it fits into the lamp
Brightness:
First off, we have to let go of the misconception that wattage equals brightness. While for incandescent bulbs wattage and brightness had a direct correlation, this is not true for LED products and since LED’s consume much less power (Watts), it’s impossible to compare brightness of an incandescent and an LED bulb based on wattage.
How do I choose a quality LED lighting manufacturer?
Now a days selecting right LED Lighting manufacturer is getting increasingly complex because of ever increasing vendor base. I have been working as LED Light sourcing consultant for last 5 years and I would like to share few of the pointers out of my experience when you shortlist vendors
Manufacturing setup – This is the most basic criteria to evaluate. You can check for his set up in terms In-house component Mounting equipment, Aging equipment, Photometery and Electrical testing equipment, Packing and Printing equipment, Assembly line, Automation etc. Capacity, quality and maintenance of equipment is critical factor
Processes – Do they have documented and auditable processes for product development, manufacturing, testing, trouble shooting etc?
Manpower quality – What is the strength and quality of manpower in Design, Quality, Production, Administration ?
Sourcing – Do they source components from reputed and established vendors? Process of vendor selection etc
