There are many reasons to start moving to low energy light bulbs, not the least being that you can save a great deal of money, you can genuinely help fight against global warming, and at the end of the day you don't have a choice since legislation to ban incandescent bulbs is beginning to really take effect.
So what are your choices when it comes to low energy lighting? In two words, not much, and in two more words CFL and LED (Compact Fluorescent Lamp and Light Emitting Diode respectively).
Out of these two, CFL's have been available for much longer yet in terms of efficiency they are only about 4 times better than incandescents plus they have a long list of murky issues with regards to aesthetics, health and safety, usability and environmental concerns.
LED light bulbs for general domestic service have not been available very long at all, however they already exceed existing efficiency levels by a factor of 10 and continue to improve at an incredible pace; and aren't hampered by a list of issues either.
The obvious question here is: if LED's are so far ahead of both incandescent and CFL light bulbs then why don't more people install them? There are a number of reasons but let's look at the two principal ones.
The first main reason is the lingering perception that LED's are for Christmas lights and such like rather than mainstream lighting. This image persists because genuine LED replacements for domestic light bulbs have not been in existence all that long and can still be quite elusive to track down.
The second reason for the slow adoption of LED's to date is lack of widespread understanding of the economics of electrical lighting and the tendency for people to pay attention to what appears most immediate and neglect what's actually going on.
Hence we moan when confronted with the electricity bill yet also moan when we see the price sticker for LED light bulbs at the local store and totally fail to spot the underlying relationship. The cost of electric lighting is a major factor in most electricity bills and it's not the cost of the light bulbs that's the culprit; rather it's the cost of running them.
Those "inexpensive" regular light bulbs convert less than one tenth of the electricity supplied to them (and paid for by you) into light - all the rest is lost as heat. Now let's look at those rather pricey LED bulbs again - the convert over nine tenths of electricity into light and waste very little as heat.
The payback period on those apparently costly LED's can be as little as one year and given that most boast life spans of 50,000 hours and upwards compared to 2,000 for regular light bulbs you would need to replace your cheap light bulbs over 25 times to keep pace with the LED's. Hmm... maybe "expensive" high quality LED light bulbs aren't so pricey after all.
What features should you consider when looking for low energy light bulbs? Quality, quality and quality would be a good guide; avoid the many cheap LED's available and you'll also avoid disappointment.
In general you can spot a high quality LED bulb by the fact that it will state what sort of incandescent light bulb it aims to replace; so if you want to replace a 35 watt, 50 degree beam, warm white halogen lamp then check that the LED you're considering is a good match for all 3 features (luminosity, light spread and color).
The second most important thing to take on board is that the light from an LED is by nature extremely directional and therefore highly suitable for spot lighting. Which is not to say that there aren't good all round light LED's available, just that spot light applications are where LED's have a natural advantage and have accordingly become highly popular with folk wanting to replace hot and inefficient MR15 format halogen spot lamps.
MR16 is often used as a generic term to describe 12v low voltage lighting, but in fact it covers both 12v two pin lamps (using the GU5.3 base) and direct mains voltage using the GU10 twist and lock base. Either way, both GU10 LED and 12v LED bulbs represent a great way to get on board right now with true low energy lighting.
So what are your choices when it comes to low energy lighting? In two words, not much, and in two more words CFL and LED (Compact Fluorescent Lamp and Light Emitting Diode respectively).
Out of these two, CFL's have been available for much longer yet in terms of efficiency they are only about 4 times better than incandescents plus they have a long list of murky issues with regards to aesthetics, health and safety, usability and environmental concerns.
LED light bulbs for general domestic service have not been available very long at all, however they already exceed existing efficiency levels by a factor of 10 and continue to improve at an incredible pace; and aren't hampered by a list of issues either.
The obvious question here is: if LED's are so far ahead of both incandescent and CFL light bulbs then why don't more people install them? There are a number of reasons but let's look at the two principal ones.
The first main reason is the lingering perception that LED's are for Christmas lights and such like rather than mainstream lighting. This image persists because genuine LED replacements for domestic light bulbs have not been in existence all that long and can still be quite elusive to track down.
The second reason for the slow adoption of LED's to date is lack of widespread understanding of the economics of electrical lighting and the tendency for people to pay attention to what appears most immediate and neglect what's actually going on.
Hence we moan when confronted with the electricity bill yet also moan when we see the price sticker for LED light bulbs at the local store and totally fail to spot the underlying relationship. The cost of electric lighting is a major factor in most electricity bills and it's not the cost of the light bulbs that's the culprit; rather it's the cost of running them.
Those "inexpensive" regular light bulbs convert less than one tenth of the electricity supplied to them (and paid for by you) into light - all the rest is lost as heat. Now let's look at those rather pricey LED bulbs again - the convert over nine tenths of electricity into light and waste very little as heat.
The payback period on those apparently costly LED's can be as little as one year and given that most boast life spans of 50,000 hours and upwards compared to 2,000 for regular light bulbs you would need to replace your cheap light bulbs over 25 times to keep pace with the LED's. Hmm... maybe "expensive" high quality LED light bulbs aren't so pricey after all.
What features should you consider when looking for low energy light bulbs? Quality, quality and quality would be a good guide; avoid the many cheap LED's available and you'll also avoid disappointment.
In general you can spot a high quality LED bulb by the fact that it will state what sort of incandescent light bulb it aims to replace; so if you want to replace a 35 watt, 50 degree beam, warm white halogen lamp then check that the LED you're considering is a good match for all 3 features (luminosity, light spread and color).
The second most important thing to take on board is that the light from an LED is by nature extremely directional and therefore highly suitable for spot lighting. Which is not to say that there aren't good all round light LED's available, just that spot light applications are where LED's have a natural advantage and have accordingly become highly popular with folk wanting to replace hot and inefficient MR15 format halogen spot lamps.
MR16 is often used as a generic term to describe 12v low voltage lighting, but in fact it covers both 12v two pin lamps (using the GU5.3 base) and direct mains voltage using the GU10 twist and lock base. Either way, both GU10 LED and 12v LED bulbs represent a great way to get on board right now with true low energy lighting.
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