Before
you go to the store, learn how to look out LED bulb specs before buy.
After
old incandescent bulbs burn out, it's a good time to consider changing to LED
bulbs. At present you may know that LEDs have an impressive longer life time.
And are very profitable. You may know that they are high investment that can
run five times more expensive than incandescent bulbs.
Despite
the cost, it is now the proper time to change to LED. These bulbs have a mass
production recent years, finally delivering hot incandescent light comforted us
for decades.
More
than ever, there are many type of LED, and the choice of an LED is quite
different to pick up a light bulb. Before you go to buy one, you should know
what you need to know how to choosing the right LED bulbs.
Learn the lingo
Forget about incandescent bulbs --
power consumption are no good here.
When choosing for
bulbs, you're may usually to looking for watts, an indication of how bright of
the bulb. The brightness of LEDs, however, is determined a little differently.
Contrary to common
belief, wattage is a measurement of how much energy the bulb draws, but not an
indication of bulb brightness. For incandescents bulb, there is an accepted
correlation between the watts drawn and the brightness, but for LEDs, watts
aren't a great predictor of how bright the bulb will be. (The point, after all,
is that they draw less energy.)
For example, an LED
bulb with comparable brightness to a 60-watt incandescent is only 8 to 12
watts.
But don't bother
doing the math -- there isn't a uniform way to covert incandescent watts to LED
watts. Instead, a different form of measurement should be used: lumens.
The lumen (lm) is
the real measurement of brightness provided by a light bulb, and is the number
you should look for when choosing for LED bulbs. For reference, here's a chart
that shows the watt-lumen conversion for incandescents and LEDs.
As you can see in
the table above, LED can use less energy approximately five times of
incandescent for the same number of lumens. Get a sense of the brightness (in
lumens) you need before going to the store, and forget about affinity for
watts.
Mind the color
You may familiar of incandescents
providing a warm, yellowish hue. But LEDs come in a more variable of colors.
As picture above,
LED bulbs are capable to provide many impressive color, from purple to red, to
a spectrum of whites and yellows. For the home, however, you're likely looking
for light color similar to the light color of incandescents produce.
The popular colors
available for LEDs are "warm white" or "soft white" and
"bright white."
Warm white and soft
white will produce a yellow hue, close to incandescents, while bright white
blub will produce a whiter light, closer to daylight and similar to what you
see in retail stores.
If you want to
compare light color (color temperature) is measured in kelvins (k). The higher
the number, the whiter the light. So, your typical incandescent is somewhere
between 2,700 and 3,500K. If that's the color you're going for, look for this
range while shopping for LED bulbs.
Set your savings expectations
As Martin LaMonica mention, LED
bulbs are like hybrid cars: consumptive lower energy but
pricey higher.
When changing to LED
bulbs, don't expect to save buckets of cash. Instead, think of it as an
investment. Even thought, competition has increased and LED bulbs price become
lower, but you should still recognition to pay money more to buy LED bulbs.
Eventually, the LED
bulbs will pay off, and in the meantime, you'll enjoy less heat emitting, lower
electric consumption, longer lasting bulb, and other LED-exclusive benefits.
Bottom line: unless
you're replacing many incandescent bulbs in a large house, you won't see
significant savings in your electricity bill.
The 'dimmable LED bulbs'
Because of their internal circuitry,
LEDs aren't compatible with mostly dimming switches. In some cases, the switch
must be replaced. Other times, you'll pay a little more for a compatible LED
bulb.
Most dimmers, which
designed to work with ordinary incandescents, work by cutting off current of
electricity sent to the bulb. The less electricity drawn, the dimmer the light.
But with your newly acquired knowledge of LED lingo, you know that there is no
direct federation between LED brightness and energy drawn.
If you'd like your
LED to be dimmable, you need to do one of two things: find LED bulbs compatible
with traditional dimmers, or replace your current dimming switch with a
leading-edge (LED-compatible) dimmer.
When choosing for
LED bulbs, it helps to know what kind of dimming switch you have, but if you
don't know (or would rather not go through the trouble), simply search for LED
bulbs compatible with standard incandescent dimmers.
Plan for placement
Knowing where it's OK to place an
LED will ensure that the bulb won't fizzle ahead of its time.
You already know
that LED bulbs is operate with lower temperature than their incandescent
cousins, but that doesn't mean they don't emit heat. LED bulbs do get hot, but
the heat from LED'driver is transfer by a heat sink in the base of the bulb.
From there, the heat dissipates into the air and the LED bulb stays cool,
helping to keep its promise of a very long life.
And therein lies the
problem: the bulb needs a way to dissipate the heat. If an LED bulb is placed
in an enclosed housing, the heat still around there, sending it right back to
the bulb, and sentencing it to a slow and painful death.
Consider place you'd
like to install your LED bulbs. If you have fully or semi-enclosed fixtures you
need to light up, look for LEDs that are approved for recessed or enclosed
spaces.
Credit: cnet.com
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