If today we continue to make the prerogative of LED bulbs since they were put on the market two years ago, it is because their low energy consumption is well established.
What are you waiting for to completely replace your lighting system?
Incandescent bulbs have given way to LEDs
Maybe many of you don’t know it yet, but since 1is January of this year, incandescent bulbs were permanently withdrawn from sale.
I didn’t know it myself, until a few months ago when, exhausting my stock, I wanted to stock up on filament bulbs at my usual hardware store. To my surprise, he then informed me that this type of lighting is no longer available on the market.
The reasons ? Monstrously energy-consuming, conventional bulbs will give way to halogens, compact fluorescents and LEDs. While inquiring, I learned that a phasing out schedule has been imposed by the European Union since 2009. And the first ones to be dropped are the 100 watts, followed by the 60 watts in 2010 and the 40 watts in 2011.
I now understand why there were only 25 watts on the market. So, if you still have this model of light bulb created by Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison, in the nineteenth century, keep them preciously warm. Who knows, in the years to come these items may turn into real museum pieces and will be traded at exorbitant prices?!
But did you know that halogens will also be phased out by 2016? Indeed, these bulbs are also very greedy in electricity, and are very far from equaling the energy performance of LED lighting systems.
As far as I’m concerned, after a few months of very satisfactory testing, I decided to adopt LEDs, even though their cost price is generally more expensive compared to halogens.
Why choose LED bulbs?
Already occupying nearly 45% of the market share of light bulbs sold in France, LEDs have many advantages, the most important of which is their very low energy consumption. Excellent energy performance obtained thanks to the use of light-emitting diode technology.
For good reason, for a 60W LED bulb, the electricity consumption is only 6.0 Watts, whereas it is 12.5 Watts for a compact fluorescent of the same power, otherwise 60 Watts for incandescence. To read, the very complete file of Que Choisir!
But one of the advantages of LEDs also lies in the excellence of their light output, knowing that their light output can easily reach 500 lumens per Watt, with the bonus of immediate maximum lighting in the first second of their ignition. It is also the models from Philips that remain the most efficient in terms of luminous flux. You can easily find them on Any-lamps.co.uk.
Moreover, these very economical bulbs also stand out thanks to their long life, which is an average of 50,000 hours, compared to 6,000 hours for compact fluorescent and only 1,000 hours for filament models.
Not to mention that these bulbs support repetitive switching on and off very well. In addition, due to their low heat radiation, LEDs ensure greater safety in their use, without taking into account their non-existent impact on the environment. This is not the case with the compact fluorescent, its big competitor which, let’s remember, incorporates mercury, which makes it very toxic.
Finally, opting for LED bulbs also means having a wide choice of colors in terms of light.