Looking to find new ways to make your business or home energy-efficient? If you are, you’ve more than likely heard about replacing your lights with LEDs at some point. What exactly are the benefits of these mystical LED lights though?
Fluorescent & Incandescent Lighting: The Secret Power-Wasters
Before we dive headfirst into the benefits of LED lighting, it’s important to understand how common lights waste a significant amount of power.
Most homes, business and large industrial environments currently use fluorescent lighting to illuminate their buildings, but these lights are secretly wasting more energy than they need to. See when you’re using fluorescent light, a very, very small amount of the electrical energy fed into it is converted into useable power and output as visible light, meaning that huge amounts of electricity are wasted by fluorescent lighting every day!
It’s been studied extensively, and experts have found that fluorescent lighting actually wastes an incredible 80% of the energy that is fed to it, while other forms of light such as incandescent bulbs actually waste up to 90%!
Have you ever grabbed a lightbulb and then promptly dropped it because it was red hot? Most of us have at some point because of an error in judgement or sheer madness, but ask yourself, have you ever wondered exactly why the bulb was hot in the first place?
The answer is relatively simple and ties in with the massive waste of power. Since the bulb is essentially only using a small fraction of the electrical energy fed into it to create light, this means that the excess energy is converted into totally useless heat, essentially meaning you’re paying extra to run your lights and all it’s really doing is heating up your bulbs! Whether you’re using these bulbs in the home or in massive installations, the amount of money you’re wasting on your lights could be extremely, extremely high.
Although they’re still more efficient than incandescent light bulbs, fluorescent light is ultimately a type of lighting that is rapidly being phased out in favour of LED lights which are by far the most energy efficient products on the market.
Meet the LED!
LED lights may look scarily pricy to install (and they are), but you could save literally thousands of pounds in wasted energy by replacing your current lighting system with LEDs!
It’s well worth considering making the jump, as even though they’re really more expensive to buy and install than other lights, the savings you’ll make over the next few years will more than make up for your initial expenditure.
These lights are becoming more and more popular in modern society as we strive towards a more eco-friendly environment, and this popularity comes as a result of the incredible efficiency of LEDs when comparing to older types of light production.
One of the best aspects of LED lights is their incredibly long service life. Conventional bulbs generally have an average life of 1000-2000 hours before they give up the ghost, but LED lights can have an average service life of 50,000 hours!
If you’ve ever had lights installed where it takes a while for them to actually light a room and you’re stumbling around in half-darkness while carrying a cup of tea, a plate of biscuits and trying to dodge the dog’s toys, you’ll be delighted to know that LED lights also illuminate themselves instantly, meaning you’ll have a brilliantly lit room as soon as you’ve pressed the light with your nose because you’ve got no free hands.
They’re also extremely durable. While you can easily break conventional light bulbs by shaking them, LED lights work in an entirely different way and can survive sudden shakes. One of the most interesting installations of these lights would be marine LED lighting, where they’re installed on submarines and boats. As these may shake when under attack or in stormy seas, the LED bulbs that are installed can easily withstand a lot of stress that normal light bulbs simply couldn’t!
As an interesting side note, you may be interested to know that LED lights actually operate in colder conditions than in a hot environment. That’s why they’re a perfect solution for areas such as supermarket freezers that are kept at a constantly low temperature, as the actual output of the LED increases in lower temperatures. Excessively high temperatures can actually cause LEDs to lose efficiency or even stop working altogether, so it’s important to ensure the environment that LEDs are installed in is around a temperature of 25 degrees Centigrade.
Light Up Your Life
While they’re also extremely impressive as energy saving, durable and long-lasting forms of light, LEDs are also impressive for their versatility, allowing them to be easily installed and work in different scenarios.
Here’s a scene for you. Imagine you’ve just ventured up into the loft to drag down your Christmas decorations on a cold December morning. After breaking out the various ornaments and baubles of Christmas past, you then come to the dreaded Christmas lights, which – over the course of the past year – have managed to tangle themselves into so many knots you feel a bit sick to even look at it. You know you have to tackle this problem though, and after around half an hour of struggling you finally emerge triumphant, your Christmas lights fully untangled. Then you plug them in, and silently curse your wasted time as the lights simply won’t work.
You may be wondering what the point of that tale was, and don’t worry, all will be revealed. See, LEDs are now commonly being used in Christmas lights to stop problems just like this one. You can’t really argue with 50,000 hours of power, which should last you every Christmas until the end of time unless you leave your lights up all year!
Outside of the merriment of Christmas lights, LEDs are also widely used for their ability to output light as different colours. Next time you’re staring at the traffic lights on a busy Monday morning, you’ll now remember you’re staring at LEDs. They’re also used in overhead lighting installations, car lights, plant growing, alarm clocks and a whole load more! These types of coloured LEDs are also extremely useful in stage shows such as concerts, in the theatre and can even be used in the home to give your room a cool, coloured theme.
As LEDs can be different sizes, they’re also great for use in the home. They can generally be used in conventional lighting installations, but one of the best looking installations in the modern home is to place the LED lights in your ceiling, where they’ll brighten the room and look extremely stylish at the same time. You may also be wondering how bright LEDs are (in fact, one of the most asked questions is are LEDs dimmable) and the answer to this question is that you can get dimmable LED lights, meaning you can create an ambient, romantic glow or have a fully illuminated room at the turn of a switch!
The Benefits of LEDs in a Nutshell
Let’s recap everything we’ve learned about LEDs. They have the following benefits:
- Huge energy savings over conventional lighting
- Different colours
- Use significantly less energy
- Aren’t easily damaged
- Can be used almost anywhere thanks to different sizes
- Last up to 50,000 hours
- Used in loads of places from traffic lights to boats
- Literally save you thousands in lost energy
In short, if you’re looking for a great method for illuminating your workspace, home or anywhere else, LED lights are the most eco-friendly solution on the market. Plus, they’ll save you a load of money, which is always nice!
