Things to Consider Before You Buy LED Lights
Switching from incandescent lights to LED might have seemed a good idea for quite a while now, but you just didn’t make the transition for whatever reason. Well now is the perfect opportunity to go out and buy LED lights for your home. These bulbs have an amazing lifespan of 20+ years and thus are very cost effective. In recent times, many advancements have been made when it comes to LED technology. Before you head to the nearest shop to buy some LED bulbs or go online, there are some things you need to know about them.
Lumens instead of Watts
Forget everything you know about measuring the brightness of the bulbs with watts. Watts don’t measure brightness anyway, they measure the amount of energy the bulbs produce in order to achieve the necessary brightness. Lumen is the real measurement of the brightness that will be provided from the LED bulb.
Colour
LED bulbs can display an impressive range of colours, anything from purple to blue, white or yellow. You’re probably looking to buy LED lights that produce similar colours as the incandescent lights did in your home. Here’s a list of the types of home colours you are most likely looking for that were provided by the incandescent bulbs.
- Warm White – 2700K (which is what the typical light an incandescent light bulb produces)
- Neutral White – 3000K (this is the typical light a halogen bulb produces)
- Cool White – 3500K-4100K
- Very Cool White – 5000K-6000K (similar to daylight colour)
Dimmable
Not all LEDs are dimmable, so you need to pick a type of LED lights that can be dimmed if you feel like that is a necessary asset your LED should possess. If you find an incompatible LED bulb for your switch, you will most likely need to replace the switch with a LED compatible one.
Efficiency
LED is a very energy efficient lighting technology. They use at least 75% less energy than traditional incandescent lighting and last about 25 times longer. They have the greatest potential impact on saving energy. They also produce very little heat and emit their light in a specific direction making reflectors redundant.
So, to conclude, before you make the transition and buy LED lights, you need to consider where you want to place the LED bulb, the colour you want it to be in and whether you want it to be dimmable or not. LED technology is the future of lighting so you should go on and buy one for a fresh start!
