Save energy, Save Money With LED Lighting
LED Home Lighting is without doubt the future of domestic lighting. Though some critics still harp on about cost and comparison with conventional lighting solutions, they miss the point as completely as comparing an abacus with an electronic calculator.
Cost wise LED lighting is the way forward and represents a different way of using light in your home.
The critics are right on one point though - it’s not the same. It should be installed, used and thought about differently because the new generation of home LED lighting brings a whole new world of possibilities.
One of the most straightforward ways to begin your move to LED Home Lighting technology is by replacing your halogen lamps, since LED spotlights are fully compatible with the various types of existing halogen fittings and provide a similar form of light i.e. very bright and directional.
Halogen lights, and down lighters in particular, are very popular and have become extremely common in many households. Used in clusters in kitchens, bathrooms and hallways especially they can really bring a space to life with excellent lighting coverage that creates a uniform and clean, bright look.
But like most conventional forms of domestic lighting, halogen spot lamps are terribly inefficient and use far more power than is necessary since nearly all the energy is wasted as heat. They also don’t last that well with bulb replacement required after about 2,000 hours of use.
To put bulb life figures into context, if you use a lamp for approximately 4 hours each evening you would use nearly 1,500 hours each year.
Overall then , the running costs (or total cost of ownership) for halogen lamps are certainly nowhere near as dreadful as for normal incandescent lighting, but with rising fuel bills and creeping legislation targeted at energy efficiency this is still Not A Good Place To Be ™.
But there is a very simple solution. Although LED lighting has yet to fully penetrate the domestic market, it does already provide a simple and very effective substitute for domestic halogen lighting.
Ironically, where LED home lighting does not yet fully compete (in the area of non-directional table lamps and the like) the increased availability of halogen equivalents for regular GSL bulbs provides an opportunity to replace ordinary household bulbs with halogen lamps while at the same time replacing halogen spot lights with LEDs.
Of course, if you don’t already have halogen lighting installed somewhere in your home then you could consider switching directly to a home LED lighting installation and gain all the benefits of a great look with super low running costs and the smug satisfaction that at least you’re not wasting precious energy (and paying for it)!
Why use LEDs as a low energy direct replacement for halogen lamps?
Halogen lamps cannot be easily replaced with standard low-energy CFL bulbs. Not only are the fittings unsuitable, CFL bulbs are bulky and frankly ugly with a poor light quality. They are also with rare exceptions not dimmable.
However, both MR16 low-voltage and GU10 mains halogen bulbs can be very simply replaced with LED equivalent lamps and the benefits are considerable.
For a start, even though the initial costs for LED lamps are quite a bit higher than for regular halogen fittings, they last a great deal longer; somewhere in the order of 50,000 hours compared to a measly 2,000 for a standard halogen. That’s a staggering 30+ years from one bulb!! Most conventional bulbs currently available last only slightly over 1 year.
Put another way, whatever the initial cost for purchasing your LEDs, divide by 25 (50,000 hours compared to 2,000 gives a ratio of 25:1) to arrive at the true cost compared to an ordinary light fitting.
But that’s just the capital cost. You also need to factor in the fact that LED lights use a fraction of the energy required to power conventional lighting. And also consider that whereas regular lamps waste up to 98% of their input energy as heat (not light), LEDs bulbs output almost no heat with almost all the energy converted to pure light.
So the real capital cost of switching to LED is actually a fraction of the upfront figure and you can look forward to years and even decades before you ever have to change another bulb. All the while costing peanuts to run, as fuel (and electricity) prices continue to ramp up, making those conventional light bulbs ever more expensive to both run and continually replace.
How to replace halogen lamps with LED lamps
There are a couple of points to consider before you install LEDs.
First, LED lamps use tiny amounts of electricity - a replacement for a very bright MR16 12v bulb rated at 35w would be less than 5w - so become familiar with the ratings for LEDs.
This low power consumption means you also need to consider transformers (for low-voltage systems) and dimmer switches. Regular dimmer units and 12 volt transformers require a minimum load and unless you are driving a lot of LED lamps there won’t be sufficient load and you will need special drivers (as LED transformers are termed) and dimmers.
Second, the light emitted from LEDs is pure in colour. Unlike traditional light bulbs which give off a wide spectrum of light, LED’s emit a single color so you should check the color will be suitable for your intended purpose.
White light can vary between “cool” white and “warm” white, giving either a closer approximation to daylight or to a conventional incandescent light source. The bulbs themselves contains a cluster of about 20 individual small LED units and can thus be manufactured to produce any given mix of color by varying the colors of the individual LED units.
The basic point is, try and see your intended purchase in use before you buy. These bulbs are not (yet) especially cheap and do last for potentially decades.
If you already have mains powered GU10 halogen lamps anywhere in your home then you can experiment right now with LED replacements, since it really is just a matter of unscrewing your old lamps and fitting LED equivalents.
For MR16 12 volt lamps a transformer is already required to run each conventional low-voltage halogen bulb and these may need to be replaced with an LED “driver” (see above).
Once all the transformers have been replaced with one or more LED drivers then again it is simply a matter of pulling out the old halogen bulbs and pushing LEDs in their place since the actual fittings are identical.
Phillips, an established global leader in lighting technology are “betting the farm” on the new generation of home LED lighting that is only now starting to become available to consumers.
Replace halogen lamps with LED home lighting and you’re done!
Anyway, that’s it. Job done. Now just switch the lights on without worrying about what it’s costing you or the harm it’s doing to the environment. How simple was that?
Simply replacing those halogen spots you’ve got in the kitchen and bathroom (and wherever else you have these ubiquitous little devices installed around your home) with LEDs will save you big money down the line as energy prices just keep on climbing.
Not only that, home LED lighting opens up a new world of lighting ideas that were until recently simply not possible.
You don’t have to make huge sacrifices to save on household energy bills or to reduce your carbon footprint. LEDs have very low power consumption, very low heat output and a very long life.
You want low cost, minimal evironmental damage and highly reliable? LED home lighting is the way to go.
Article by kulekat 