How To Easily Convert To LED Lighting
November 3rd, 2009
Most people are by now aware that traditional incandescent light bulbs are fast becoming a thing of the past and that LED (rather than CFL) alternatives represent the future of low-energy, low-cost, low-environmental impact lighting. But where to begin?
Now you might think that it would just be a matter of swapping every existing incandescent light bulb for an LED equivalent, however I really would suggest that you don’t go down that route. For a start the up-front cost would be quite steep, but perhaps more importantly it would jeopardize the likelihood of a successful outcome.
LED lighting is a wholly different technology to anything you might have experienced before and it takes time and a bit of trial and error to figure out what works best for your particular lighting needs. But when you get it right, the payback is more than worth it with a clean contemporary look that also delivers a massive drop in electricity costs.
Sound advice then is to begin with an area that either uses a lot of lighting or has the lighting switched on a lot (or simply somewhere you would like to refurbish anyway). In this way, your chances of seeing a noticeable difference with respect to both light quality and running costs are greatly increased.
It’s important to get off to a good start in this way as it will encourage you to then take another step further towards the final goal of switching totally from incandescent to LED. For many, if not most, people then it is the kitchen that invariably matches these criteria - it typically has a lot of lights that get used a lot and refurbishing the lighting provides a relatively cheap makeover.
The typical modern kitchen often uses quite a number of halogen lamps, either mounted on tracks or recessed into the ceiling. These waste a phenomenal amount of electricity as heat and are simplicity itself to replace with retrofit LED equivalents. Just pull the halogen lamp out and push in an LED rated to produce the same level of light. For GU10 LED bulbs that’s it, but for MR16 low-voltage lamps you should also purchase an LED driver to replace the 12v transformers previously used.
It’s the same story with lighting concealed in/over/under cabinets - like for like replacement. And if your kitchen was short of lighting then this present a perfect opportunity to rectify the situation. You can also fit LED strip lights under plinths, covings and kickboard recesses - this latter one can dramatically alter the look of a kitchen by lighting the floor. LED strip lights are lightweight and easy to fit, and come in both rigid and flexible formats which can be cut or joined together to fit any requirement.
Three key considerations should be borne in mind with regard to LED lighting.
1. Quality. There is no point whatever in buying low quality LED lights - they won’t produce the light levels you need, won’t last and won’t really save you much. Expect to pay a relatively high price (10-20 that of a regular bulb) for an LED that will do the job properly and bring in very significant savings over time. Branded products like Cree or Zenigata for example. Don’t forget, if you want a cheap purchase price you can always stick with incandescent bulbs - just don’t moan about the exorbitant electricity bill.
2. True cost. Or what is known as TCO (total cost of ownership). Over a period of 50,000 hours a single LED will incur zero replacement costs and cost as much to run as it costs to buy. Over the same span a halogen lamp will need to be replaced at least 25 times and is likely to incur 1,000 times its purchase price in electricity costs. Even if an LED costs 20 times more (and many do) it’s cheaper just on replacement costs alone and orders of magnitude cheaper on electricity costs.
3. Use. The best way to use LED lights is plenty of them with a mix of brightness and colour temperature and position them to reflect off objects and surfaces. LED lights are high intensity and can be quite harsh if you look at them directly, however they don’t yet “carry” as well as incandescent bulbs. Reflected light however does easily fill a space well with warmer, more diffuse tones and at the same time you get sharp accent lighting on the original feature or surface.
For further information check out these articles that examine the subjects of 12v LED lighting and 12v LED bulbs in more detail.
Tags: broadband, Mobile, computer, software, internet
Tags: energy, green issues, halogen lighting, home improvement, kitchen lighting, led lighting, lighting, low energy lights, money saving, reduce waste, save energy, save money, technology
Posted in technology | Comments (0)
No comments yet
