Lighting can account for a quarter of your energy bills. Switching to low-energy light bulbs can save you a lot of energy and money and reduce your carbon emissions.
LEDs are one of the most efficient low energy lighting options available. Switching to LED lighting can significantly cut costs. Its technology is changing rapidly, meaning light of a fantastic quality that you can dim if needed.
The easiest and most cost-effective lights to change to LEDs are halogen bulbs with a GU10 fitting. But you can also find LEDs as:
The savings for an LED are similar to using (compact) fluorescent lights. The advantages of LED are that:
Using LED lighting is a great way to reduce the amount of time you spend changing light bulbs! LEDs last about 10 times as long as halogen and incandescent bulbs. They also heat up less, limiting fire hazards and reducing possible need for cooling the space.
For years, people have chosen light bulbs by their wattage, which only tells you how much energy a bulb uses — not how bright it is. Lumens is a more reliable way to tell a light bulb’s brightness.
A standard 60-watt incandescent bulb, for example, produces about 800 lumens of light. By comparison, an LED bulb producing 800 lumens only uses around 13 watts.
Our table shows the relationship between lumen and watt for different light bulbs types. But remember that bulb technology is improving all the time.
|
|
Dimmer |
|
|
Brighter |
|
Standard incandescent |
40W |
60W |
75W |
100W |
|
New halogen incandescent (save up to 30%) |
29W |
43W |
53W |
72W |
|
Compact fluorescent lights (save up to 75%) |
9W |
14W |
19W |
23W |
|
LEDs (save up to 80%) |
8W |
13W |
17W |
20W |
Choosing the correct beam angle is important, especially for spotlights.
If you want to light specific features or create a certain mood, choose lights that concentrate output with a narrow beam angle of around 45° to 60°.
Where you need a wider spread of light, use a light with a beam angle of 120°. The lower the degree of the beam angle, the narrower the beam of light will be.
The colour of light gets measured in Kelvins [K].
For restaurants and bedrooms 2700K is most appropriate. Leisure centres, offices and conference facilities are better lit at 4000K or even real daylight.
It’s worth checking the dimensions of the LED bulb to make sure it will fit inside the original bulb housing / light fitting / ceiling void.
While the diameter of the bulb face is generally 50mm for LED spots (GU10 and MR16), the length and width of the body can vary.
You can find a lot of this information on the packaging of the light bulb or from your supplier.
Try a few bulbs from different suppliers and see which ones you like best before replacing them all.
Make a whole area feel bright by lighting ceiling and walls, and having light coloured and reflective surfaces. For mood lighting, spotlights are more effective.
The light fitting that holds the bulb has different efficiencies too. You can increase the amount of light by:
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