There are quite a few reasons why you might think about switching to low energy lighting, the main ones being: saving significant money; helping combat global warming; and because you don’t actually have much choice in the matter thanks to global legislation to ban the incandescent light bulb.
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).
Of the two, CFL’s have been fairly widely available for longer but are only about 4 times more efficient than incandescent and have a lot of serious issues relating to health, aesthetics, usability and the environment.
LED’s have only recently become available for domestic use but are already 10 times more efficient and constantly improving at an astounding rate, and pose no problems at all.
So if LED’s are way better than either incandescent light bulbs or CFL’s then why aren’t more people installing them? There are several reasons but we’ll look at just the main two.
The first of which is that most folk have a perception that LED’s are for toys and decorative lights, not serious domestic lighting. This is mainly because viable LED alternatives to mainstream light bulbs haven’t been around long and are still not so easy to find.
The second main reason why adoption of LED technology has yet to take hold is that few people really understand the economics of lighting. It’s human nature to focus on that which is in front of us at the expense of working out what’s really going on.
That’s why we grumble when opening the latest electricity bill and balk when confronted with the cost of LED light bulbs in the hardware store; all the while totally missing the connection. A sizable proportion of the average electricity bill is due to the cost of lighting – it’s not the cost of the light bulbs that matters, it’s how much it costs to run them.
Those apparently cheap incandescent bulbs you’re been buying all these years waste 90+ percent of the electricity (that you pay for remember) as heat; less than 10 percent goes towards producing light. The equation for LED light bulbs is the exact reverse with over 90 percent of the electricity converted to light and less than 10 percent lost 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 then should you look out for when purchasing energy saving light bulbs? Top of the list has to be quality – there are loads of cheap LED light bulbs out there and they’re frankly a waste of money.
Most good quality LED light bulbs clearly indicate what type of incandescent bulb they are suitable to replace. So if you’re looking for a low energy alternative to say a warm white 35w halogen down light with a 50 degree beam then make sure your candidate LED’s claim to match that spec.
The other main point to get used to is that LED’s are intrinsically very directional and thus compete very well with most conventional spotlights. LED light bulbs that provide all round illumination are available but they are much less common than the spot light formats, which are already becoming very popular as replacements for MR16 halogen spots.
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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