What to Check for When Buying LED Light Bulbs

1. What to Check for When Buying LED Light Bulbs If you have not given much attention to the issue of illumination lately, it is presumably because, as for most people, the incremental elimination of modern incandescent light bulbs was not necessarily the best of your view. That is not all that surprising; being able to turn the lights on at will does not seem like a big deal. We do it all the time and as goals go, the entire lighting business is easily off the radar. Currently, the majority of low-energy bulbs available are CFLs that are about 4 times more effective than incandescent bulbs (i.e. they only consume about 25 percent of their energy as heat compared to 90 percent). CFLs are, however, generally unhappy with customers, suppliers, and environmentalists. They have very low esthetic properties (not exactly what you want for lighting), they are difficult to dispose of safely due to their mercury content, and they are complex and costly to make. So, are you going to buy semi flush ceiling lights right now? That depends very much on whether you balk at the quoted costs (compared to both incandescent and CFL light bulbs, LEDs often cost more than a few times to buy) or whether you can do the math and know that reductions in energy usage can more than cover off the investment in the first year or two. And because modern tiffany lighting LEDs last more than 50,000 hours (compared to 2,000 for standard bulbs) the return on investment just keeps running. Now some people will argue that it makes sense to wait until LEDs are both cheaper and even more efficient, but again, if you run the math, you will find that it is actually better to replace perfectly functional LEDs now and then plan to replace them in a couple of years, even though they will still have years of life left. What is that? Since the expense of artificial lighting is pretty much equal to the cost of electricity-it is all about running costs, not equipment costs. But, if you are talking of converting to LED lighting, then here's a couple of tips about what to look for. First, realize that inexpensive, low-power LEDs are not really capable of replacing any of the current lighting-a false economies is low-cost in this sector. However, the more costly brand name items are definitely up to the work, sound amazing and can offer very impressive cost savings. Second, we have all grown used to measure light levels by wattage, i.e. 100w very bright, 40- 60w pleasant, 25w below very dark. This scale does not extend to LEDs. At the moment, a reasonable approximation is that the traditional table lamps can emit as much light as the traditional bulb rated at 10 times its capacity, so that the 5w LED is easily adequate to replace the standard 50w halogen spot lamp, for example. Luminosity, expressed in lumens (a typical 40w bulb emits around 360 lumens), is a more direct measure of light. Luminosity alone, though, is not enough to assess how bright a light source actually appears. The beam angle and the "tone" light are also important.