LED Bulb Buying Guide

If you have not done so already, as your incandescent bulbs burn out, it’s as good a time as any to switch them over to an LED bulb. You’ll perhaps understand that they have a particularly impressive lifespan of around 20 years, and you’ll be aware that they are also very cost-effective. They’ve also dropped in price substantially over the past decade or so. Purchasing these bulbs could be a way for you to reduce expenses over time.

Further, there’s an overwhelming variety of LED bulbs available. But before you venture to the store, learn what it is you need to know when selecting the right LED bulb.

Learn the lingo

Don’t rely on your knowledge about the incandescent – wattage is not appropriate here.

You’ll likely be more accustomed to looking for wattage, which serves as an indication as to the brightness of a lightbulb. LED brightness is, however, determined somewhat differently.

Watts are in fact representative of power consumption as opposed to brightness. The thing is, though, watts don’t really work well in predicting an LED bulb’s brightness.

As an example: An LED bulb that offers a comparable brightness to an incandescent rated at 60W is merely 8 to 12 watts. But for LED bulbs, they rely on a different measurement – lumens.

This, the lumen (lm), is in fact the true measurement of a light bulb’s brightness, and that’s the number to look for when investing in LEDs.

In essence, the incandescent bulb may draw as much as five times the wattage for the exact same number of lumens as an LED.

Mind the color

Incandescent bulbs are known for their warmly yellowish hue. LEDs, on the other hand, arrive in a diversity of colors.

The most popular colors for LEDs in the home are “soft white,” “bright white,” and “warm white.”

The warm and soft whites produce a yellowish hue which is similar to incandescent. The bright whites are whiter and closer to daylight.

Getting a bit more technical, light color, or color temperature, is calculated in kelvins. With a lower number, you get a warmer – or yellower – light. A typical incandescent is around 2,700 to 3,500 kelvin. Look for that range when shopping for LEDs if this is the color that attracts you.

Savings expectations

LEDs, it can be said, are a bit like the hybrid car: More affordable to operate, but costly upfront.

Thus, don’t be expecting to save a ton when switching over to LEDs. Rather, see it as an investment. Fortunately, over the years, the prices have tumbled for LEDs, but they are still more expensive than incandescent.

Over time, the LED does pay off, and, what’s more, the bulb life is much longer, there’s less heat production, and you can, believe it or not, control them via your smartphone.

Dimming LED conundrum

On account of their circuitry, the LED bulb is not always compatible with dimming switches of a traditional nature. Sometimes, that switch has to be replaced. Otherwise, you may pay a bit more for an LED that’s compatible.

Incandescent dimmers work by cutting down the supply of electricity – the less electrical supply, the dimmer the light becomes. This does not function quite the same way with LEDs.

For a more dimmable LED, you’ll have to:

• Locate LED bulbs that are compatible with an incandescent dimmer, or
• Replace the dimming switch with an LED-compatible dimmer

Whenever you’re investing in some new LEDs, it’s good policy to know the kind of dimming switch that you have. Otherwise, simply opt for LED bulbs which are compatible with the standard incandescent dimmer.

Planning for placement

Understanding the placement of an LED will help to ensure the bulb will last longer.

You’ll likely be aware that LEDs run a whole lot cooler than do incandescent. Nevertheless, they still produce heat and they still get fairly hot. The heat with respect to the LED bulb is pulled away thanks to a heat sink that’s located in the bulb’s base. From here, the heat dissipates and the bulb remains palatably hot but not sizzling. This in turn aids the length of life of the bulb.

And this can cause a bit of a problem. If that same LED is positioned in enclosed housing, there’s nowhere for the heat to go. Thus, the bulb itself becomes hot, and its lifespan is greatly diminished.

Therefore, you should always consider the positioning of your LED bulbs. If you do have fully enclosed fixtures that need lighting, look for LEDs that have been specifically approved for an enclosed space.

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