Some lateral thinking on reasons for moving towards LED Bulbs and Energy Saving Light Bulbs

The Main Reasons for changing over to Energy Saving Light Bulbs or LED Bulbs

There are some fundamental reasons why many people move over to energy saving light bulbs. The biggest one by far has got to be so save money on electricity and they certainly do make a dramatic impact on the quarterly electricity bill. With a CFL technology energy saving light bulb saving around 75% and an LED bulb saving in the order of 88% there is a massive gain to be made by this move.

The next 2 reasons on  most peoples agenda is to reap the benefits of longer life span and then to play your part in the eco drive. With an LED bulb lasting between 20000 and 50000 hours then this is a massive improvement even on the  relatively long lifespan of the CFL energy saving light bulb at 10000 hours and a mammoth improvement over the old incandescent light bulb which lasts about 1000 hours before burn out.

So these are the big hitters but the benefits do not stop here and depending on the applicaction then there are normally a range of other cherries to be picked.

Looking deeper into the benefits of LED Bulbs and Energy Saving Light Bulbs

Now lets say you are lighting a kitchen. Here by the very nature of a kitchen it is going to be hot and in a number of cases there might actually be some fairly sophisticated air conditioning or cooling system to make the ambient temperature acceptable from a working perspective. So the last thing you want it a set of filament or halogen bulbs heating the place up just so you can get the required levels of illumination.  In this case it is like  a downward spiral because the more light you put in to the space, the more heat that is generated and the more the air conditioning then has to work to keep the place cool and the only result is spiralling energy costs which might be good for the energy companies but nobody else.

Another interesting angle is looking deeper into the lifespan. On the face of it if a CFL energy saving light bulb lasts 10000 hours and an LED lamp lasts 50000 hours then you would say well the LED bulb is 5 times better. However, if you look deeper then you need to get the replacement bulbs when the lamps fail and also change them so there is normally significant acquisition costs to be accommodated plus some maintenance costs. Then if the premises are commercial there will undoubtedly be some health and safety considerations to bear in mind.

Then another angle is then to look at the electricity supply and wiring capability for the establishment, particularly in commercial buildings. A number of properties which are more traditional in character will be several decades old and in these times the electrical supply capacity and the sophistication of the consumer units was not as it is today. Even so people are now plugging in more and more appliances and extending ring mains which is putting a much higher load on the electrical systems. In this case then either the number of appliances and light fittings needs to be reduced or the whole electrical system upgraded. In the case one easy solution is to go LED bulbs which will reduce the lighting consumption by anything up to 90%. Although this is a relatively high investment cost with the LED bulbs then it is often a far more economical solution that upgrading the electrical system.

I will not write chapter and verse on the other benefits but just finish with a list, namely, reduced fire risk, instant start up of LED’s, no premature failure with LED’s when used with sensors, more variety on lighting colour, less load on transformers, smaller batteries needed for emergency lighting, reduced land fill, lower carbon footprint and the list goes on!!