led light bulbs buying guide how to choose the right lamp
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09/09/2016 LED light bulbs buying guide: How to choose the right lamp?
http://www.charlstonlights.com/blog/ledlightbulbsbuyingguide 1/13
LED LIGHT BULBS BUYING GUIDE: HOW TOCHOOSE THE RIGHT LED LAMP?
LED and how it diers fromincandescent bulbs and CFLs?
LED lighting is highly-ecient and most eco-friendly
lighting source in the market; what’s more, it oers so
many varieties to choose from. We are here presenting
helpful guidelines to help you make the perfect choice.
For years, people have only one style of light bulb – the
incandescent. Over the time, there was need of energy-
ecient lighting, and CFL bulbs came onto the scene, as
a cheaper, more energy-ecient lighting option.
One step ahead, now we have LEDs oering bene鴖홈ts like
low energy usage, low heat emission, and low impact on
the environment when discarded.
Do you know lighting accounts for 10%-30% of a typical
household’s energy bill in India? So, this is right time to
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09/09/2016 LED light bulbs buying guide: How to choose the right lamp?
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make change, and go for highly ecient lighting – LED –
and save money, energy and also our environment.
There are many types of LED bulbs are available in the
market today. So choice is dicult and people generally
wonder, how to choose the right LED bulb? We will solve
your confusion, but let 鴖홈rst have an overview of what is
an LED lamp?
For over 150 years, 100-watt incandescent light bulbs
have been in use to light up hallways and bedrooms
while 60-watt Incandescent have been used in reading
lamps and closets. They are well-known for producing
yellow glow and became the most prominent electrical
lighting choice for generations after generation.
Problem was that they were unproductive, and were
wasting lots of energy as heat. It’s really sad that only
about 10% of the electricity used is actually converted to
light while 90% is given o as heat. They soon became
obsolete as energy-ecient competition arrived.
CFLs have been around for a while, and become an
energy-ecient alternative to incandescent bulbs. In its
寃uorescent technology, electricity is used to exciteجح
mercury gas inside the tube to produce ultraviolet light,
which then passes through a coating of phosphor on the
insides of glass tubes, giving o visible light based on
the principle of جح寃uorescence.
CFLs use much less energy compared to incandescent
bulbs – about 75% less to produce the same amount
light, but the main disadvantage to CFL lights is that CFLs
contain toxic mercury in the bulb. Mercury is very
dangerous heavy metal. Generally, this is not a problem,
but if the bulb breaks, then proper cleanup and disposal
of CFL bulbs is critical.
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It’s time for making the best choice with the advent of
new LED technology. LED bulb is next generation option
in energy eciency. LED bulbs are made out of clusters
of small light emitting diodes instead of 鴖홈laments,
harmful mercury, or gases.
This technology has been around for decades and most
commonly, it has been used as the small indicator lights
on electronic devices. For now, LED bulbs are grouped in
clusters with diuser lenses to expand its adoption for
home, oce, and commercial use.
If you compare cجح寃 and led bulbs, LEDs are highly energy
ecient and use very little energy than incandescent
bulbs and CFLs. LED technology is advancing rapidly with
modern bulb styles available. They are more expensive
than other lighting options, but the price of LED bulbs is
going down every year as its manufacturing technology
continues to improve. The main advantages of LED
bulbs over cجح寃 are low energy usage, low running cost
and longest life time.
Performance of LED bulbs vs.Incandescent bulbs vs. CFLs:
First important thing to consider in comparison is
performance.
LED light bulbs use only 2-17 watts of electricity that is
about 1/6th to a regular incandescent bulb and 1/2 to
CFLs. Traditional incandescent bulbs use a lot of energy
to produce light however 90% of this energy is given o
as heat. Here lost energy is money we are throwing
away. On other side, using LED bulbs, you can save 85%
in energy costs.
Low power consumption means far lower energy bills.
Generally, lighting accounts for roughly 25% of the utility
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bill. So this is really a big deal, not only for individuals
but also for larger properties like warehouses &
factories, public schools, hospitals, local governing
bodies, etc. which can hoard huge monthly bills. LED
oers really big savings for their electricity use.
Comparison based on other important bene鴖홈ts that
LED oers:
Life span: Another big advantage of using LED is
that it lasts longer. Our GlowUP LED bulbs last for
an average of 50,000 hrs, around 15 years (at 9
hours/ a day) under normal household use. This is
roughly 30 times longer when compared to
incandescent bulbs as well as 5 times longer than
CFLs.
Big saving of energy and money: LEDs are initially
expensive, but the cost is recovered quickly in
electricity and replacement savings in the long
term. It oers considerable ongoing savings for
many years to come, as LED bulbs last for an
average of 50,000 hrs means no hassle of replacing
bulbs. On considering its low-power usage and
long life, it helps you save a lot than incandescent
bulbs and CFLs.
Highly durable: LEDs are extremely durable; as
they do not have a 鴖홈lament means they can work
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even if dropped or fell down like incandescent
bulb. Being solid with aluminum body, they also
hold up well to jarring and bumping.
Less heat: LEDs don’t get hot, even after being on
all night. They just feel warm to the touch while
Incandescents and CFLs get really hot to work by
their very nature. LED lights do not cause heat
build-up. They come with metal heatsinks to draw
the heat away from the LED chip itself. That means
it’s safer to operate as well as it can cut energy
costs along with cut air conditioning costs in the
home, preventing heat build-up.But if the heat sink
is not perfect in size, poorly connected or of a poor
design, the LED will be overheated and burning
out. Here thermal management is the single most
important factor in the successful performance of
an LED product over its lifetime, as higher the
temperature at which the LEDs are operated, the
more quickly the light will fail and the shorter the
useful life.
Eco-friendly: LEDs notably reduce carbon
emissions, so praised as the best eco-friendly
lighting option. Every year, power plants using
Incandescent bulbs emit 80 million tons of CO2
into the atmosphere for generating electricity to
light US homes. Now replacing all those bulbs to
LED, carbon emissions is reduced to only 12 million
tons comparable of taking 2,500,000 cars o the
road.Even LED bulbs don’t contain harmful
mercury like CFLs. Mercury is a toxic heavy metal
that damages the environment as well as becomes
poisonous when breathed in by humans. As LEDs
use low power, there would be lesser demand for
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electricity that resulted in less power plants means
less pollution.
CRI – quality of a bulb’s light: Color rendering
index (CRI) is important factor for any led lighting
product. General use bulb for home requires CRI of
80. With High CRI > 82, Charlston’s GlowUP LED
lamp helps you see the actual color of the objects
more accurately.
Suitable to decorate any corner: LED bulbs would
be nice lighting choice for eect and decorative
purposes. As LEDs lights are directional, they are
excellent for lights under cabinetry, in the kitchen
over your workspaces and over the home oce
desk.
Quick light: LEDs are instant on like incandescent
while CFLs take a minute to warm up on turning
on.
Dimming Capability: The main dierence between
cجح寃 and led bulbs is that, CFL lamps cannot be
dimmed. With dimmable LED bulbs, you can not
only save money but also increase life span of
bulb.
Calculating the cost of electricity:
Here is given a simple example to know how much you
exactly save for using LEDs. For this, you must
calculate the costs of electricity to run light bulbs.
At 鴖홈rst, take scenario of 3 bedrooms, each having a light
bulb in the ceiling. Fix 60W incandescent regular bulb in
鴖홈rst bedroom, a 20W CFL for the second, and 9W
GlowUP LED bulb for the third one. All these bulbs
would give the same light level in the room.
Now to calculate the cost of running the light bulbs for a
year, 鴖홈rst you have to make some assumptions like
09/09/2016 LED light bulbs buying guide: How to choose the right lamp?
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usage of light bulb and how much are you charged for
electricity?
Suppose light bulb in your room is used for about 6 hrs
a night, means about 2000 hrs of use every year. Next
assume that you pay for electricity 7 Rs. (Indian rupees)
per kWh( 1 Unit). Also, get the bulb’s wattage in 1000W =
1kW means 40W bulb is 0.04kW.
Use formula: hrs x Rate x Wattage = Total yearly cost.
So, a yearly running cost
for the 60W incandescent bulb is 2000(Hrs) x 7(Rs) x
0.060(Kilo Watt) = Rs. 840/-
for the 20W CFL it is 2000(Hrs) x 7(Rs) x 0.020(Kilo Watt)
= Rs. 280/-
for the 9W LED it is 2000(Hrs) x 7(Rs) x 0.009(Kilo Watt) =
Rs. 126/-
You can use this formula for any types of bulbs.
Another way to count on savings of LED lamp is take a
quarter of your bill – did you know that lighting account
for 25% of a home’s electricity usage. Now, reduce that
quarter portion by 85% if you want to go from
incandescent bulbs to LED or by 50% if you want to
switch from CFL to LED.
How to calculate total cost of replacingbulbs?
What if there will be any replacement of light bulb, you
couldn’t get the right 鴖홈gure based on common usage.
Knowing cost of replacing bulbs over a particular period
helps you count exact saving for LEDs.
As claimed, our LED bulbs last 50,000 hrs, CFLs last 5000
hrs, and the incandescent bulbs last only 1000 hrs.
Suppose there is 2000 hrs a year of usage; then within
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20 years, you’re only going to have 1 LED bulb, while you
need 8 CFLs and 40 Incandescent bulb.
Another important thing is the money spent on light
bulbs. On assuming prices stay the same, 9W LED Bulb
costs 750 Rs. and its 20w CFL equivalent costs 200 Rs.
and 60w incandescent bulb costs around 20 Rs. That
means over a 20-year period 1 LED bulb will cost 750 Rs.,
8 CFLs will cost 1600 Rs and 40 incandescent bulbs will
cost 800 Rs.
Cost of electricity per year to run those light bulbs, as
calculated above
9W LED Bulb = Rs.126/yr
20W CFL Bulb = Rs.280/yr
60W Incandescent Bulb = Rs.840/yr
Cost of electricity over 20 years:
126 x 20 = Rs. 2520 for LED
280 x 20 = Rs.5600 for CFL
840 x 20 = Rs.16800 for Incandescent
Total cost over 20 years (Cost of electricity over 20 years
+ Cost for the bulbs used within 20 years):
Rs. 750 + Rs. 2520 = Rs.3270 for LED Bulb
Rs. 1600 + Rs.5600 = Rs. 7200 for CFL
Rs. 800 + Rs. 16800= Rs. 17600 for incandescent Bulbs
Check the Incandescent vs. CFL vs. LED light bulb
comparison chart below showing annual running cost,
energy usage and lifetime.
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Role of Lumen in lighting output as wellas eciency:
Lumen is unit to measure the total amount of visible
light that your bulb and other lighting object produces.
You can easily compare lumens between all
incandescent and CFL bulbs, as higher lumens on the
box, the brighter the bulb’s light output. But it is
meaningless if you compare lumens between an LED
bulb and a CFL to an incandescent bulb. On measuring
lumens, you also have to consider useful lumens. If a
light bulb emits light in every direction similarly over and
beneath, then light that going up can get trapped in the
light 鴖홈tting and totally wasted.
It is reported that about 50% of light emitted from a CFL
or incandescent bulb is trapped inside the 鴖홈tting and
never makes it out. That trapped light is just gets
absorbed and wasted as heat. That means from all the
lumens that bulb produces, only about half actually
lights the room, these are called as the useful lumens.
When it comes to LED bulb, its little LED chip is mounted
to the body of the bulb and all the light coming out are
all pointed in the one direction, basically pointing down.
As bulbs in your ceiling are pointed down, all of the light
produced by the LED bulb makes it into the room.
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See the Incandescent vs. CFL vs. LED light lumens chart:
Wattage Lumens Useful Lumens
LED 9W 800 lm 800lm
CFL 20W 1000lm 500lm
Incandescent 60W 1000lm 500lm
Here you can say that the 9W LED is higher in light
output levels to the other two. All the lumens produced
by LED bulb are useful lumens, while only about half of
the lumens from the CFL and incandescent are actually
usable.
Ecacy is another important thing to decide the
performance of the LED bulb in terms of lumens. It
points out eectiveness of the light bulb at converting
electricity into visible light based on watts used by the
object while turning on. Thus, ecacy is total lumens per
watt. For ex. our 9W light bulb comes with lumens of 800
has an ecacy of 90lms per Watt.
What to look for Quality in LED Bulbs?
Light quality and temperature are also important
consideration to make on comparing bulbs. Both
important things are measured by CRI and CCT
respectively.
CRI – Color Rendering Index: CRI is a measure of light
quality, showing how well a light source replicate color
to the human eye relative to daylight. White light is
made up of all the colors in the light spectrum. We can
see the color of every material object when light being
thrown on it. Natural daylight has the highest CRI rating,
while arti鴖홈cial light sources can’t produce all the colors
of the light spectrum. CRI of 80 is the standard
requirement for general home use. With CRI > 82,
Charlston’s GlowUP are best to render natural colors.
09/09/2016 LED light bulbs buying guide: How to choose the right lamp?
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Even some well-known retailers with colorful fabric and
wares are switching to LED bulbs and are perfectly
satis鴖홈ed with CRI score of > 80.
CCT – Correlated Color Temperature: CCT is measured
in Kelvin to refer to the warmness or coolness of the
white light that bulb produces. CFLs and LED bulbs don’t
get as hot as incandescent bulb. The temperature is
linked to the warmness or coolness of the light – higher
the temperature cooler the light looks. LED bulb listed
with 3000K doesn’t actually heat up to 5000°F, but it will
still give o a warm light just like an incandescent so
color temperature is important. As being Cool white, our
LED bulbs have 5300K- 5600K temperature. Some LED
bulbs have more than 6000K CCT, which make the light
more towards bluish rather than white.
How to buy the perfect LED bulb?
Above mentioned details help you get perfect idea about
how better is LED bulb, compared to other lighting
source. If you are fully convinced, then your next step
would be purchasing of LED bulb, but wait, LED bulbs
are available in so many varieties to choose from. To
make the right choice, consider important factors that
aect making of LED bulbs. So many factors help to
dierentiate the value of LED bulbs from each other. Just
checkout carefully and pick the best LED bulb for your
home, oce, or other purpose according to these
factors.
Quality of the LED chip: The performance of the LED
light bulb is mainly based on LED chip, so next important
thing need to be considered here is type of LED chip
used. High quality chips last longer and depreciate less
over time, both for light output as well as light quality;
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however you have to pay more for that quality. So
beware of LED bulbs made using chinese LED chips.
Lumens: The next step would be to calculate its lumens
per rupee – How many lumens does it produce and how
much does it cost? For ex. an LED bulb is 800 lumens
and costs Rs. 750 (800/750) = 1.06lms/rs. The higher this
ratio is, more light the bulb emits.
Lifespan of Bulb: Another important thing is lifespan in
hours. Charlston’s LED bulb GlowUP lasts 50,000hrs. So
if you consider daily use of 8 hrs, bulb may last 17 years,
and for daily use of 12 hours, bulb may last 11 years.
The life of bulb also depends on the heat sink used to
draw heat away from the chip and LED driver. In
addition to good heat sink, GlowUP is dimmable, which
extends its life to last longer.
Color Temperature: Modern bulbs are available in
dierent color temperatures – in a unit called Kelvin (K).
A warm yellow light oer lower color temperature with a
lower Kelvin value, giving a comfortable atmosphere.
While cool blue light oer higher color temperature with
a higher Kelvin value, which is more energizing. If you
prefer clean look, modern, brighter feel of a cool white
lamp, over traditional yellowish color of warm light, then
GlowUP is for you.
Dimmability: The amount of light in a room helps to
create the suitable ambience, and it can be controlled
with dimmable light bulbs including dimmable LEDs. You
can easily turn the amount of light up or down via a
dimmer switch. Dimming not only saves energy
consumption but also extends bulb life, as the power to
bulb is reduced, So must consider it while selecting.
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The signi鴖홈cant dierence between branded and non-
branded LED bulbs is that: non-branded or chinese
bulbs have lower quality power supply, lower lumen per
watt output and lesser life span. And this is the reason
why there is a large price dierence between dierent
LED bulbs.
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