I’m a fan of LED lighting, but I don’t want anyone to have a bad experience with the early products that still have some drawbacks. When you shop for LED lights, keep these four factors in mind.
Remember the early days of CFLs? They were expensive, didn’t fit into regular lamps, had strange shapes, and the light they cast had that harsh fluorescent glow. Many people tried those bulbs and were turned off by them – even though CFLs have improved a lot some people I know still refuse to buy them.
The good news is that the LED bulbs coming to market have the same shape as traditional bulbs and you can now find bulbs on the market that replace common sizes like MR-16 (often used in track and spot lighting), PAR 30 (in recessed fixtures), and candelabra-style bulbs. And while costs will come down and light quality is close to that of incandescents, you need to be aware of a couple of things before you buy that LED.
1. Directionality: Traditional bulbs cast light uniformly 360 degrees around them. LEDs by their nature cast light in one direction, making these early bulbs best for recessed lighting, like this PAR 30 from Advanced Lumonics. I’ve yet to find an LED bulb that is good for your basic table lamp. (But stay tuned: the Energy Department is sponsoring a competition: the first company that produces a bulb that can replace the basic 60-watt light bulb will win $10 million in cash and federal purchasing contracts, so lighting companies are working hard develop this product fast.)
2. Light output: LED bulbs on the market have slightly lower output than a similar incandescent or CFL. This can be great for accent or niche types of lighting, but so far they’re not quite ready to replace bulbs fixtures that are the primary light source in a room. The candelabra-style bulb from Philips pictured at left provides a nice accent light in a wall sconce.
3. Light quality: LED’s are not as harsh as the early CFLs were, but they don’t yet have quite the warm glow of incandescents. The way to know what you are getting with the LED is to look for the “color temperature” which is expressed in Kelvins. A typical incandescent bulb is around 2700 K; many LEDs are around 3000 K: close but not quite what you are used to. Higher K than that and you get a bluish tint to the light, which this night light bulb from Sylvania gives. For comparison, below I have edited together two photos of our fun Zebra night light; the one on the left has an incandescent bulb that uses 7 watts of electricity, the one on the right has a 1-watt LED bulb. You can see the color of the light is very different. For a night light, it probably won’t bother you.
4. Dimmability: Like CFLs, not all LEDs are dimmable so you need to read the label to be sure the one you buy can be put on a dimmer. The good news: LEDs don’t get the annoying flicker that CFLs typically produce when you dim them too much.
So given these drawbacks, should you just wait? No. The next post will give you some guidance on deciding where in your house these bulbs would meet your needs today.
Guest blogger: LEDGuy has been following developments in LED lighting for two years. You can learn more about the available products, the technology, and evolving market for LED lighting at his blog, http://ledlightsathome.com