Your curiosity matters
It’s encouraging that you are curious about embracing LED bulbs for your home. Hopefully, reading on the merits of LED bulbs in this article will make you intentional about purchasing them and be led to become an evangelist, pun intended.
LED bulbs are synonymous with high energy efficiency – higher light output per watt of power as compared to traditional options like incandescent bulbs.
The only caveat is a higher upfront cost, but it’s overcome by a truly long lifespan (a decade plus), significant annual energy cost savings, a wide range of light appearances (warm to cool), and varying shapes and sizes.
Thus, you get an almost limitless pool of LED options that can become overwhelming when shopping.
Don’t worry though. You’ll get relevant pointers on selecting the best LED bulb for your living space.
Best applications for LED lamps around your home
The top consideration when selecting an LED bulb is where it will be installed in your home. You may yearn for unique capabilities or styles from LEDs for different rooms.
Some LEDs add a cool and crisp illumination to a home office such as amazon link while others add a warm ambience to living rooms and bedrooms just like this amazon link.
Specially made vintage LEDs blend with your home decor adding a timeless lighting accent but at optimal energy efficiency.
You may have a liking for color-changing LED lights, which broaden your horizon of experimenting with lighting styles.
How can one forget LED strip lights, both wired and wireless? These are optimally placed behind TVs, under cabinets, and shelves to create customizable, pleasing ambient lighting.
Do you want customizable reading lights? Perhaps spotlights for your wall art? You might want subtle yet stunning recessed lights? LEDs are ideal choices for all these applications.
Maybe you would like to keep your houseplants or home gardens thriving? Well, LED grow lights got you covered.
Finally but not least, LEDs can illuminate hard-to-reach areas and can work as excellent outdoor lights around your home.
Consideration 1: LED bulb sizes and shapes
LED bulbs are defined in 3 major shape and size classes: A-shape class, reflector class, decorative class.
In each of these classes, there’s a popular naming nomenclature in North America (America & Canada) consisting of a letter (or multiple letters) followed by a number (representing diameter in eighths of an inch). This nomenclature is explained below.
Firstly, A-shape class LEDs are the standard, most commonly used bulbs in homes – typically for general lighting.
The most common A-shape LEDs are A19 and A21.
A represents the name “A-shape” while 19-eighths of an inch (19*⅛”=2.375inches).
Other A-Shape LEDs A15, A17, & A23.
Secondly, reflector class LEDs are popular for outdoor lighting and feature reflector cones. Also called flood lights or spotlights. Reflector LEDs have more directed beams thanks to – you guessed it – the reflectors.
Popular reflector LED bulb types include R20 (Reflector), BR30 (Bulged Reflector), BR40, PAR16 (Parabolic Aluminized Reflector), PAR20, PAR30, PAR38, & MR16 (Multifaceted Reflector). In these codes, the number remains the size multiplier.
Table showing images of different reflector LED bulb types:
Thirdly and lastly, the decorative LEDs class consists of bulbs typical in decorative fixtures like chandeliers, wall sconces, or special exposed-bulb fixtures. This class has a wide selection of vintage bulbs.
Here the letter in the bulb codes signifies the bulb shape while the number is a size marker. Common bulb codes include B10 (Blunt Tip), CA10 (Candle Angular), C7 (Candle), C9, G16.5 (Globe), G25, G30, ST19 (Straight Tube), T5 (Tube), T8, PS25 (Pear Shaped), & PS30.
Having discussed A-shape, reflector, and decorative LEDs, a little focus on specialty LEDs such as smart bulbs and grow bulbs is worth the time. These specialty LEDs can fall under one or more of the 3 size and shape classes described above but it is only their mode of operation and control that differs.
On the one hand, smart LED bulbs feature programmable light appearance (color temperature) and brightness.
Example image of an A-shape A19 smart LED:
On the other hand, grow bulbs are applied in sustaining and accelerating indoor plant growth by emitting light mimicking natural light.
Consideration 2: LED Bulb Voltage & Wattage
When buying an LED bulb, examine the light bulb voltage on the box carefully to ensure that you choose a 110V AC or a 220V AC instead of a 12V DC bulb (which are popular for camping or recreational vehicles).
According to the US department of energy, LEDs consume 75% lower energy than incandescent bulbs.
You might want to replace an existing incandescent bulb with an LED. Therefore, you’ll need to understand the difference between watts and lumens. Why? Watts are an electrical energy use measure while lumens are a light output measure.
All LED bulb packaging shows the lumens value. A higher lumens figure means a brighter bulb and vice versa. E.g., a 800 lumen LED is brighter than a 400 lumen LED.
LED bulbs are referred to as ‘energy savers’ because LEDs have a very high lumen output per watt of power. The ratio of lumens to watts (lumens/watt) is called luminous efficacy of a bulb and it’s a popular metric when comparing LEDs.
To bring the stark energy efficiency gap between LEDs and incandescent bulbs, one needs to consider this – the former produces about 90 lumens/watt while the latter produces only 15 lumens/watt.
Consequently, it translates to a ratio of 6:1 (90/15) meaning that an LED is 6 times more energy efficient than an incandescent bulb. Therefore, if you need to replace an incandescent bulb in your home with an LED, 6:1 is the ratio to remember.
Say you desire to replace a 100 watt incandescent bulb with an equivalently-bright LED. Divide 100W by 6 to get an equivalent LED power rating of 16.66W. Therefore, you’ll need to buy an LED with a power rating of at least 16W as a replacement.
Consideration 3: LED color temperature (Warm or Cool or Neutral)
Color temperature simply refers to the light appearance.
Sometimes you have walked into lit spaces having soft, golden light and in some others you find very bright white, bluish light similar to daylight. The golden light is from warm LEDs while the latter is from cool LEDs.
When buying an LED bulb, examine the packaging and you will notice that the color temperature is specified in words and numerically.
For example, warm LEDs have numeric values from 2700K – 3500K while cool LEDs have values from 5000K – 6500K.
There are neutral or warm-white LEDs which fall in the band between warm and cool LEDs on the kelvin scale, specifically 3900K – 4200K.
What are these numeric values doing on LEDs?
These numeric values show the correlated color temperature (CCT) measured in degrees Kelvin (K).
These values do not reflect the actual thermal temperature of LEDs. What do they show?
Consider a scientifically standardized object being heated. As its temperature rises, it begins glowing in a golden color which fades in intensity transitioning to white-blue as it gets very hot.
An LED’s color temperature in Kelvin (K) correlates to the object’s changing thermal temperature as it transitions from a golden to a white-blue appearance. In other words, LEDs replicate the effect visually rather than thermally.
Where to use warm LEDs vs Cool LEDs?
Warm LEDs: Suitable for creating cozy atmospheres in relaxation spaces such as bedrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, and hallways.
Cool LEDs: Create bright, crisp light akin to daylight that enhances visibility and alertness. They are ideal for rooms requiring focus and clarity such as kitchens, home offices, bathrooms, utility spaces like garages, laundry rooms, and closets.
Consideration 4: LED dimmability and compatibility
The LED experience is customizable through dimming. However, only some LEDs are dimmable and they are compatible with specific dimmer switches (not all).
How to know whether an LED is dimmable? Manufacturers indicate this on the packaging box or on the online or physical technical specification sheet.
How do I check dimmer compatibility? LED technical sheets almost always reveal the compatible inhouse dimmer models. In other cases, there are dimmer manufacturers targeting a wide range of dimmable LED brands and they provide the compatible LEDs.
If still doubtful, always visit a manufacturer’s website for accurate information about the dimmability of your product and its compatibility with various dimmer switches in the market.
Consideration 5: LED lifespan
LEDs last at least 50,000 hours, with some very high quality ones running up to 100,000 hours. Assuming 10 hours of daily operation, the LEDs on the lower end last about 14 years while the higher end ones can run for double the time – a mind blowing 25 years.
Compare that incredible LED lifespan with the almost bygone incandescent bulbs which last only about 1 year with similar daily use.
In addition, running the LEDs during this lengthy lifespan guarantees significant energy savings, and thus lower energy bills.
LED lifespan has been placed as the last consideration as it holds little weight in the purchasing equation, especially having in mind that a good quality LED lasts at least a decade and presents worthwhile energy cost savings.
Confident enough?
This has been quite a lengthy read, hasn’t it? Kudos for reading through!
They say knowledge is power. You are now armed with requisite information to successfully purchase an LED with the right size and shape, wattage and voltage, color temperature, dimmability and compatibility function, and lastly a good lifespan guarantee.
