I going to explain you how to
select LED light bulbs after reading this article, you will have the knowledge
required to buy the correct product to fit into your existing lighting fixtures
First of all... congratulations!
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| led ceiling lights bulbs |
You have made the correct decision of switching to LED lighting
products to save energy and money compare with traditional light sources LED
light can save up to 80% of energy and the life span of LED bulb is 5 times
longer than the compact fluorescent lamps and twenty five times longer than
traditional incandescent bulbs that means in the long run you will be saving a
lot of the expenses spending on the energy maintenance and replacements.
Plus,
LED light bulbs contain no hazardous materials to contaminate our environment.
We are saving the earth for our new generations. When you buy a LED
bulb, first of all you will need to know if it is going to physically fit into
your fixture.
Lamp bodies are categorized into shape and size.
Shape is indicated by English letters most commonly seen including, Lamps,
PAR lamps, MR lamps ...ect.
Size is indicated by numbers immediately follow the shape code. for example A19 bulb, PAR38
bulb , and MR16 bulb ...etc.
Next, we need to make sure the mounting base will fit.
Mounting bases are also indicated by English letters followed by
numbers for size.
For residential customers, the most commonly seen mounting base is Edison screw-in base for example E26.
This is usually called "medium base".
There are also pin style mounting base.
For example, a lot of MR16 lamps use GU5.3 bi-pin connectors.
Refer to the information provided with your lighting fixture and
find the correct lamp body, size and mounting base to use.
Now, the lighting performance of the lamp
A lot of time you will find a "LED Lighting Facts" label printed
on the retail box.
Lighting Facts is a U.S. Department of Energy certified program for LED
lighting products.
It provides essential information to evaluate products and identify the
best options.
On the lighting facts label there are several keywords that you require
to understand before you can make a decision.
First of all
Brightness
The brightness is indicated by Lumens, which is the scientific unit used
to describe total light coming out of a light source regardless of the beam
direction. The higher the number, the brighter the light source is. Second, total
power consumption indicated in Watts.
This number tells you how fast this bulb will be burning energy. And then, the efficacy
This is the ratio of Lumen over Watts.
The first number over the second which indicates how efficiently the
energy provided will be transferred to visible light.
This number is essentially the most important indicator telling us how well is this product designed. On the
upper right hand side you will be able to find the brand name of the product
Next is the CRI short for Color Rendering Index this is the ability
of a light source to correctly render color. We will cover this one later on.
Finally
Color temperature
This number tells us the color of the light generated the color of
white light can be either warmer or cooler, and it is indicated by Kelvin
temperature certain color temperature is considered better in certain
situations and we will talk about it shortly here is a reference about how much
energy can be saved by switching to LED bulbs to generate four 450 Lumens or
more a traditional incandescent
A19 needs to bring energy at 40 Watts a 60
Watts incandescent bulb generates 800 Lumens and a 75 Watts incandescent bulb generates
about 1100 Lumens to reach the same level of lumen output, a compact
fluorescent bulb uses less amount of energy which is about 30% of the
incandescent by switching to LED bulb we can further save tremendous amount of
energy as well as maintenance cost due to the long life span of the LED light bulbs the Color Temperature
information on the lighting facts label tells us in what kind of situation this
light bulb can be used at it's best usually for residential customers or
hospitality industries warmer color temperature can provide the atmosphere and
ambient fellings desired this means the color temperature should be below 3,000
Kelvin traditional incandescent lights are in the 2,700
Kelvin range for industrial users or working environment, cooler
color is usually preferred because it mimics dat light and will keep people alert A 3,500 Kelvin or about light is considered in cooler range most
of the traditional fluorescent lights are in 4,000 Kelvin or above
The Color Rendering Index or CRI on the lighting facts label tells
us how well can the light bulb correctly present color in our eyes it is
measured and calculated based on the
response of the light on 8 indexing colors the CRI is measured in reference
with a perfect black body radiation or incandescent light source for
incandescent
CRI is set to be 100 the closer a light source can get to 100 the
better quality of light it provides industrial standard for CRI of warm color
LED light is about 80 or above here is an example the color stands out more
under a higher.
CRI light source while on the right hand side low CRI light is
causing the color to be fade and washed out this tutorial covers the most
fundamental knowledge and key concepts required when buying LED lamps.
I hope this can help you to pin point the correct products and make
a correct decision in your lighting retrofitting projects.