As the trusty old incandescent bulbs finally fade away after a lifetime – or probably more like a few hours – of service, a new generation looks to a new style of lighting: LEDS.
The facts are in. Just about everyone and their gran now knows that an LED bulb, be it the mini inbouwspots or badkamer spotjes currently illuminating your master bathroom, last longer and are massively cheaper than the old school alternatives.
We all know that the inbouw LED spots you install today in the bridal suite of your boutique hotel, may well outlive the marriages of several of its occupants.
But here are some of the things you might not know about LEDs and the times when it might be necessary to think about when you fit them and what preparation you might need to do.
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR, BABY
LEDs are more expensive than incandescent bulbs and more expensive than halogen bulbs. There, we said it.
However, you get what you pay for.
Like everything else in life, not all LED fittings are created equal.
Fortunately, LEDs have vastly come down in price since they first went on sale and even the most expensive ones are now not the bank breaking investment that they used to be.
It should be possible to find LED insertion spots of good quality, without it feeling painful for your wallet.
The cheaper end of the market may not be as good as the quality end. But ultimately, even a cheaper LED is superior to any incandescent bulb.
In order to see the full benefits of Philips LED spot you really need to commit to changing them in *all* the light fittings in your home – not just a select few.
LEDS ARE MEASURED IN LUMENS AND NOT WATTS
The first thing you have to realize is that all LED bulbs, be they kitchen lights or badkamer spotjes are measured in lumens and not watts.
Once you understand this, it will be easier to pick the right bulb for your needs.
Watts is actually a description of how much electricity your bulb is consuming. Because LEDs use so much less energy, they won’t have the same wattage as an incandescent bulb.
As a rule of thumb, you can replace a standard 60 watt incandescent bulb for 800 lumens (8-12 watts) a 100 watt incandescent for 1600 lumens (16-20 watts) and so forth.
THERE ARE SOME PLACES AN LED SHOULDN’T GO
Before you rush off and change all your old bulbs for LEDs, a word of caution.
There are some light fittings where an LED doesn’t dare to tread – yet.
If the place you are placing the LED is within enclosed housing, be careful. This may not be the best place for LEDs which need some space around them to function at their best.
DIM WITH CARE
The good news is that an LED can be made dimmable like the dimbare LED spots inbouw badkamer or dimmable LED spots which are built-in to the bathroom.
The bad news is that you still have to play it safe and check that the bulb you are buying is compatible with the dimmer switch you have.
It is best to buy the dimmable bulb and the switch together, to make sure that they are right for each other.
COLOR IS AN OPTION
With the old fashioned incandescent bulb, color was not really an option.
They provided a nice warm glow, but that was about it. The colored incandescent bulbs were basic at best.
This is not the case with LEDs, which can come in every shade of the rainbow and make for some very subtle shadings.
For the first time, if you want to turn the room blue, or red, you don’t have to think about redecorating. It is now possible to have different color effects within the same room – at different times.
