Guide to Understanding, Buying, Installing, Benefiting from LED Lights � LEDinsider – discussion on energy efficient lighting and

Guide to Understanding, Buying, Installing, Benefiting from LED Lights � LEDinsider – discussion on energy efficient lighting and

A straightforward guide to understanding, buying, installing and benefiting from energy saving LED home lighting. ht: kulekat

Domestic LED lighting is still seen as something of a novelty and many people don’t really understand what’s involved, where to use energy saving LED lighting, how to use domestic LED lights or what the issues are regarding installing low energy light bulbs.

For a start there is the cost, which puts many people off straight away because what they almost certainly don’t yet understand about low energy lighting is that when comparing an ultra low energy LED light bulb with a normal incandescent bulb or even an “energy saving” CFL light bulb they are not comparing like with like.

It’s hard to see how a domestic LED replacement light that costs many times more than the ordinary light bulbs you’ve always bought before could possibly save you money. But believe it – it will save a fortune and sooner than you might think.

Part of the reason is not only the energy saving that home LED lighting brings, but that word “replacement” – replacing conventional, halogen and so-called low-energy CFL bulbs with genuinely ultra low energy domestic LED lamps means quite simply you don’t have to replace light bulbs all the time because the lifespan of most LED lamps on sale today is a staggering 50,000 (or more) times that of a regular incandescent light bulb.

The fact is that even at today’s fuel prices you will save (yes, that is “will save” not “may save”) substantial sums of money by replacing existing domestic lighting systems with low energy LED home lighting alternatives. The following table gives a clue as to how much saving is possible from LED compared to CFL and incandescent lighting.

Type	Wattage	Total Lumens	Lifespan Hours	Annual Energy Cost	Cost Over 5 Years
Incandescent	60W	840	1,000	8.00	1200.00
CFL	11W	770	8,000	1.45	217.50
LED	5W	625	50,000	0.40	60.00

Energy costs are based on the standard approximation of 10p per kWh, with average usage of 4 hours per day for a modest family home with 30 light bulbs.

Regardless of how closely the actual costs match your own circumstances, you can clearly see that LED light bulbs are nearly 4 times cheaper to run than CFLs and a massive 20 times cheaper than incandescent light bulbs.

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