When the first visible LED was created in the early 60s, little was known of how much it would change the scape of future lighting solutions.
Traditional lighting (e.g. halogen, fluorescent, and incandescent) are beset by drawbacks that affect them and their surroundings yet have been the mainstream choice of lighting for decades – until now.
LEDs (or light emitting diodes) first made an impact in the lighting market share in 2015, with an estimated 28%. But in the five years since, that has skyrocketed to 69% – over 2 in 3 lights sold today are LEDS, clearly no flash in the pan!
In simple terms, LEDs have made such an impact on modern infrastructure because they have so many benefits and so few drawbacks.
In this post, we’d like to enlighten you on what these benefits are, and why your switch to LED should have happened yesterday!
Want to know if you qualify for free LED fitting? Contact Cube Lighting & Design here!
1. LED Lighting is the most economic choice
Compared to their traditional counterparts, LEDs have a much higher lifespan, up to 50 times in some cases.
LEDs tend to last between 35,000 and 50,000 hours. Compare this to halogen light bulbs that tend to fizzle out at 2,000 hours, and you’re looking at increased lifespan of 15-25 times.
Their long lifespan is down to the lack of heat that they produce. Typical lightbulbs emit significant waste heat energy which eventually burns the filament inside it, rendering it useless.
LEDs not only produce much less waste heat; they also don’t have a filament inside them to be at risk of burning out in the first place.
2. Say Watt? LEDs do better at less power
LED lighting generally runs better than traditional lighting even at lower wattage. Some research puts it at 80% less electrical power when compared to halogen, fluorescent or incandescent lights for the same amount of light produced.
This makes LEDs good for large scale installations at a commercial level because although they cost more at the point of installation, they have a much lower lifetime cost.
Similarly, LEDs are a good option if you’re considering relighting your home. Not only are they energy-efficient and safe, they will cost you less long-term, with savings sitting around £40 a year, according to Energy Savings Trust.
3. LED lighting is more easily recyclable
There is a lot of confusion about how to dispose of typical, non-LED lightbulbs. Some bulbs contain certain materials that can be harmful to the natural environment if left in a landfill and should be recycled where they can be handled properly, whilst others can’t be recycled because the glass they’re made of is incompatible with usual household glass jars.
For more information on how to best recycle your light bulbs, visit the Recyclenow website but for now, let’s discuss why LEDs are much more clear cut than these annoyingly specific lightbulbs.
Firstly, LEDs don’t contain enough of these toxic elements to be considered hazardous waste so they can be thrown with the rest of your household waste.
However, LEDs also contain a lot of electrical components which are useful to be recycled, such as diodes and semiconductors. This makes LEDs suitable for recycling like any standard electronic equipment.
An important thing to note out of all of this is that regardless of how you dispose of your LEDs, be sure that you’ll be doing it a lot less than you would do with other lighting fixtures as they have such a longer lifespan (as discussed earlier).
4. LEDs can handle watt-ever is thrown at it
It is common knowledge that electrical products don’t tend to mix very well with the outdoors, and Cube being a British company, it’s common for our outdoors to be…shall we say, miserable.
Rain, wind, snow – we’re sometimes even treated to hail if the sky is feeling like it! Suffice it to say, not a lot of Brits would be confident with installing outdoor lighting in their back gardens or commercial spaces in case they were rendered inoperable by the harsh British weather the very next day.
Fortunately, many LEDs manufactured today are done so with an ingress protection (IP) rating that protects them from varying degrees of damaging elements such as water and dust, making them perfect if you’re looking to improve your business’s outdoor signage or illuminate an external space (or even if you’re looking at buying an outdoor fountain)
Naturally, however, this also applies to the wetter parts of your home or work too. If you’re thinking of installing under cabinet lights in your kitchen space or light fixtures in your bathroom, then LEDs are the way to go so that the splashback of water from your tap or shower never becomes an issue.
Water isn’t the only thing that LEDS can withstand, either. Because they don’t emit heat, LEDs are also the most obvious choice for colder environments as they won’t burst or burn out unlike their traditional, outdated counterparts. This makes them perfect for use in colder climates as well as indoor freezer units, commercial fridges and other cold storage facilities.
5. LEDs, UV & You
A less known (but no less interesting) tool in the arsenal of LED is its unique qualities regarding ultra-violet, or UV.
Compared to traditional lighting, LEDs tend to emit far less ultra-violet waves. Though this may not mean much immediately, there are many negative implications of UV to you and your business.
UV lights are related to skin and eye health but unless you’re lying in a sunbed, artificial UV lights shouldn’t be too high on your list of worries.
If you’re a museum curator, however, beware. Over time, UV lights are the invisible parasite that can cause untold damage and degradation to paintings and fabrics alike.
And if you’re a restaurant or take out owner using UV lights, forget about it! The only customers you’ll attract are flies, mosquitoes and other multi-legged pests – and they don’t pay well!
Thankfully, LEDs are here to save the day once again. With their low UV output (amongst everything else) LEDs are the perfect alternatives to these situations that would otherwise cause business owners hundreds or thousands long term.
Ready to take the step into the future of lighting? Contact Cube Lighting & Design here to see if you qualify for free LED lighting!
Want to keep reading? Check out our last blog post here: Starting and Scaling a Company in Construction
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