Today’s most efficient way of illuminating and lighting is undoubtedly LED. When compared with older lighting technologies such as Incandescent, Halogen and CFL bulbs, you will find that LED is by far the most energy saving and smart solution.
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The pace at which LED technology is growing is truly incredible, although they’ve now been around for many years, today’s LED technology has completely changed lighting as we know it. We’ll be the first to admit that the process hasn’t always been consumer friendly, and we’ve compiled this guide to help you understand how any why you can benefit from making the switch.
LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are a type of electronic light source. LEDs are different from conventional light sources such as incandescent and halogen lamps. They last much longer, consume far less energy and emit very little heat. They are highly durable and do not feature fragile elements such as glass tubes or filaments; they are also safer because they do not contain any mercury or lead. LED bulbs are now available in the most common light fittings, including GU10, B22, E27 and MR16.
LED Bulbs use up to 90% less energy than an incandescent or halogen bulb of equivalent brightness. LEDs are far more efficient at converting electricity, measured in watts, into light, measured in lumens. As such, a typical 4 watt LED bulb can easily achieve a light output comparable to a 50 watt halogen, sometimes higher due to its high lumen to watt ratio.
One of the biggest benefits of using LED is its outstanding life time expectation due to very efficient thermal management, LED Bulbs are able to remove heat through heat sinks to help prolong the life expectancy of the bulb by slowing down lumen depreciation. A well-built LED with good thermal management should last up to 50,000 hours. Be wary of retailers making exaggerated claims about the life expectancy of their products.
The brightness of a bulb is measured in lumens (Lm), the higher the number of lumens, the brighter the bulb. Despite using very low wattages, LEDs are able to emit the same brightness as traditional light sources. To make things easier, most retailers quote an equivalent incandescent wattage so consumers can replace their lights and keep the same brightness.
You used to look for wattage when buying new light bulbs, but wattage only measures energy use. Because energy efficient bulbs use considerably fewer watts, we now use lumens, which measure brightness, to select new bulbs. The chart below can help you determine how many lumens you’ll need from your new bulbs:
You used to look forWhether it’s in a standard household or a commercial environment, lighting represents as much as 20% of the overall energy consumption. By switching to LED, a considerable amount of money can be saved due to the lower wattages of the products. LEDs also last far longer so you won’t need to replace them often and their reliability means you won’t need to worry about maintenance. Once you’ve switched to LED, you will start saving money in less than a year.
Yes. Unlike CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps), LEDs do not contain mercury. They also give off comparatively little heat, making them safer to handle after prolonged use. The absence of glass enclosures and fragile parts also reduces the likelihood of breakage, so you won’t have to worry about broken glass.
Using LED lights cuts carbon emissions. When you replace your old incandescent or CFL bulbs with LED, you are essentially reducing harmful CO2 levels being released into the air. This is because LED lights use less energy, energy that power plants produce by burning fossil fuels and oil. The less energy that these power plants need to make through burning of fuel, the less carbon emissions are released into the environment.
LED lights don’t waste energy. Incandescent bulbs consume high amounts of energy but only give minimal light luminance. Where is the excess energy going? Excess energy is converted to heat and released also into the environment, excess energy means wasted energy.
LED lights do not contain harmful metals. Lead and mercury are classified as the most toxic heavy metals in the world. And halogen, incandescent, and CFLs contain these heavy metals. Discarding these bulbs elsewhere or even in landfills can cause the lead and mercury content to spill and be mixed into your source of water or as a vapour in the air you breathe. On the other hand, LEDs don’t contain any of these harmful metals.
Thankfully, LED bulbs exist as replacements for most caps, shapes and sizes so there’s always an LED for you.
We stock LEDs in a wide range of types including standard GLS, candles, golf balls, reflectors, spotlights and tubes.
Yes, all our LED bulbs are retrofit and are designed to work with existing light fittings and be used as direct replacements. Please ensure that any fittings being placed in bathrooms are both fire-rated and waterproof and hold suitable certification of IP65 or higher to comply with relevant building regulations for bathrooms.
Like most retailers, we offer both dimmable and non-dimmable LED Bulb options; you will find these on our respective product pages.
Yes. LEDs use very little power compared to halogen bulbs. While this is good news for your electricity bills, it also means they will not work properly with your existing dimmer switches and may lead to a shortened bulb life, a lower light output and a buzzing sound. For an optimum performance, you must use trailing edge dimmers which have lower minimum loads and are designed to be used with LED bulbs.
We offer a wide range of compatible LED dimmers, which you can see here.
Unlike CFLs, which usually take a few minutes to reach full brightness, LEDs reach full brightness instantaneously.
SMDs (Surface Mounted Device) are the new generation of LED lighting, the majority of our bulbs contain SMD chips allowing our bulbs to be much brighter than older generations of LED. The LED is soldered directly onto the PCB therefore requiring less space and improves the thermal connection.
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Chip on Board (COB) is the most recent development in LED technology using chips with multiple diodes (typically 9, or more). There is no casing with COB technology which enables a much denser LED array of light compared to SMD. A consistent and controlled light beam is given off, without any visible individual light points, thus offering great optics. COB offers a greatly improved lumen per watt ratio compared with other LED technologies such as DIP and SMD. COB technology gives the best conditions for optimal cooling, which in turn will increase efficiency and lengthen the overall life of the lamp.
Light output is most commonly found in one of three colours: warm white, cool white and daylight. Warm white is usually used in domestic capacities and is the normal colour associated with a standard halogen bulb making the ideal replacement. Cool white is a cooler white colour often associated with fluorescent tubes in offices or retail outlets. Daylight colour is a very white light, almost with a tinge of blue to it, and provides the very best colour rendering.
LED are ideal for operation under cold and low outdoor temperature settings unlike CFLs. They are also extremely durable and built with sturdy components and can withstand tough conditions. Because LEDs are resistant to shock, vibrations and external impacts, they make a perfect choice for outdoor light systems.
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If you’ve ever gone to a big-box hardware store to get a light bulb, you may have glanced down the vast length of the lighting aisle and decided that it’s not such a bad thing to go to bed at dusk and wake up at dawn.
But don’t be intimidated by the hundreds of choices you have among the rows and rows of light bulbs. Technology has changed bulbs for the better: They last far longer than they used to, they can produce different intensities of light, and some can even be turned on and off by a cellphone, motion or the sunrise. Finding the right one just takes getting used to a few criteria old bulbs didn’t offer. Buying the wrong one can mean yet another trip to the store — or, worse, a set of bulbs you can’t use.
Not so very long ago, if you wanted a light bulb, you bought an incandescent bulb, the kind Thomas Edison created for commercial consumption. Those days are largely gone. As of August 1, the government has banned the sale of most bulbs that don’t produce 45 or more lumens per watt – which effectively eliminates incandescent bulbs, since most generate about 15 lumens per watt. (A lumen is a measure of light a bulb emits.) Most light-emitting diode (LED) lights generate about 75 lumens per watt.
The Department of Energy says the rule will save consumers about $3 billion a year, while saving enough energy to power 43.2 million homes for a year. And, while you won’t be able to buy new incandescent lights — with the exception of a few specialty bulbs such as those used in appliances — you can still use the ones you have.
The amount you pay for a single bulb, however, is just part of the cost. You also need to take into account how often you’ll need to replace the bulbs and how much power you’ll use to run the light. According to the Consumer Federation of America, over 10 years the total cost — that’s the cost of the bulb and the power to run it — of using a 60-watt incandescent bulb would add up to about $70. (That cost also includes buying several replacement incandescent bulbs over the decade.) A CFL costs about $20 over the same span of time, and an LED costs an average of $13.70. The average house has more than 20 light bulbs, meaning that switching to LEDs from incandescents could save you about $1,100 over the 10 years, or a bit more than $100 a year.
Not so very long ago, your main consideration in buying a light bulb was how many watts you needed: a 100-watt bulb for reading, for example, or a 60-watt bulb for a table lamp.
A watt, however, is a measure of how much energy it takes to power a bulb — not how bright the bulb is. (It’s named after James Watt, inventor of the steam engine.) Many newer bulbs are marked in lumens, which is the amount of light a particular bulb emits, and that’s because most new light bulbs, such as LEDs, use much less power than an incandescent bulb.
For example, a traditional 60-watt incandescent bulb emits 900 lumens of light and uses 60 watts of power. An LED light that emits 900 lumens of light uses just 15 watts of power. Here’s a table of how watts on incandescent bulbs convert to lumens.
Watts Lumens 40 W 600 lm 60 W 900 lm 75 W lm 100 W lm 150 W lm Source: RapidTables.comOld-style incandescent lights had one shade of white, unless you were partial to colored party lights. New bulbs — even incandescents — have a variety of color warmth, which is measured in a scale of 1,000 to 10,000 degrees Kelvin. (It’s named after William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, who discovered absolute zero — the lowest possible temperature.)
According to bulb manufacturer Westinghouse, Kelvin temperatures for commercial and residential lighting applications fall somewhere on a scale from K (warm white) to K (daylight):
Unless you enjoy climbing ladders, you’ll want the longest-lasting bulbs in hard-to-reach places, such as the top of a stairwell. Here again, LEDs would be your first choice. If you decide to use an LED light for that floodlight mounted under the rafters, make sure you choose one that’s made for exterior use.
And there’s no need to be heroic about replacing a light bulb. If you don’t feel confident about climbing up to replace a hard-to-reach bulb, get a relative, neighbor or handyman to do the job for you.
If your bulb will reside in an enclosed location, such as a hall light with a glass cover that fits flush to the ceiling, or an outdoor light that’s protected from the weather by a glass globe, you’ll need a bulb marked as usable for enclosed fixtures. LEDs and CFLs don’t last long in enclosed fixtures, because the heat buildup will fry some of their components.
If you’re planning on putting a bulb where it may become damp, such as a bathroom or basement, be sure to get a bulb that’s suited for damp locations. Use outdoor damp-rated lights for porch lights that are out of the rain or wind, and also on decks with an overhang that does not allow water to seep through (otherwise you need wet-rated bulbs).
Traditional light bulbs had one feature: You put it into a socket, flipped a switch, and it produced light. Today, however, you can buy lights that:
One final note: Light bulbs, in particular halogen lights, come in a remarkable number of sizes and shapes. Fortunately, the classic pear-shaped, screw-in light bulb we’re all familiar with and you’re most likely replacing is easy to identify on store shelves. On the packaging, look for “E26” or “medium base,” which indicates the bulb will screw into a standard threaded socket, and “A19,” which signals the bulb is the size and shape of a standard bulb. If you are in need of anything other than a standard E26/A19 light bulb and want to save another trip to the bulb aisle, bring the bulb you plan to replace with you to the store.
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