How to choose LED light bulbs?

Here are a few things to consider when choosing LED light bulbs...

Efficiency

Manufacturer's claims vary wildly about the efficiency of LEDs and can often be quite misleading. The simplest way to ensure that you are comparing "like with like" is to look at the efficiency in Lumens per Watt. That is, how much light do you get for each Watt of electricity used. Today LEDs that are in production range in efficiency from about 80 to 120 Lumens per Watt. This compares with around 10-15 Lumens per Watt for old-fashioned incandescent lamps and 50-100 Lumens per Watt for fluorescent tubes.

Colour Temperature

Early LEDs were mostly a very much higher colour temperature (ie a bluish light) than the typical 2700K colour temperature of a warm white incandescent lamp. This has led many people to think that LEDs gave a "cold" light. LED technology has however advanced a great deal in the last couple of years and some types of LED are available in a range of colour temperatures from warm white (2700 or 3000K) up to daylight (6000K and beyond). LEDs with a higher colour temperature do however tend to be slightly more efficient than those with a lower colour temperature so some companies offer these as a way of making their products seem brighter. To replace standard incandescent or halogen lamps, a colour temperature of around 2700K to 3300K is preferred. Some companies use non-standard terms when describing the colour of LEDs such as "natural white" or "office white" which cannot be readily compared with other products. To ensure that you are comparing like with like always check the colour temperature.

Colour Rendering

The colour rendering of LEDs varies quite markedly between brands. For some applications this is not particularly important but for ambient lighting it is important to check the quality of light emitted. The LEDs that we offer for ambient lighting all have good colour rendering, comparable to that of a good quality fluorescent tube. Many manufacturers do not however quote a colour rendering index for their LEDs so we are rarely able to quote specific figures.

Heat Output

LEDs give off relatively little heat but do run reasonably warm and often incorporate a heat sink to dissipate any excess heat and maintain the LEDs at optimum operating temperature. Compact lamps such as miniature spot lights can thus still get reasonably warm whereas larger bulbs and candles certainly cool enough to touch when operating.

Rated Life

The one area where LEDs really score highly is in their rated operating life which typically ranges from 20,000 to 50,000 hours. This is 20 to 50 times longer than a typical incandescent lamp so LEDs are ideal for use in areas where maintenance is difficult or long life is important.

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Innotech is a professional manufacturer and exporter specialized in LED light bulbs including LED Filament light bulbs, Glass LED light bulbs, LED Spotlights, LED panel lights, etc. If you have any questions or enquiry about Lighting products, please don't hesitate to contact us.