A Practical Guide To Led Lighting In Residential Application
Introduction
The use of LED illumination options is expanding. More LED goods and options are currently on the market than ever before for conventional incandescent and energy-efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) lamps.
While some LED products may simply resemble any other light bulb or fluorescent tube, switching to LED lighting can be quite difficult due to the wide range of products, new terminology created by the lighting industry, and the fact that LEDs use a different technology than what we have been accustomed to for decades.
This article provides guidance on how to choose products for various areas in a residential environment, defines the "must-know" terms that homeowners or contractors should be aware of when purchasing LED products, and highlights some of the pitfalls to avoid and be aware of to make the transition to LED lighting a success.
What motivates the switch to LED?
They are not only significantly more energy-efficient than alternatives like incandescent and CFLs, allowing for significant energy savings, but they also have a much longer lifespan, don't contain mercury like CFLs, and offer a lot more choices for brightness and light look. (warm vs. cool).
Every new building or remodelling endeavour in California must adhere to the 2013 California Energy Efficiency Standard, also known as Title 24. The strict energy usage standards specified in this standard can be met or even exceeded with LED goods.
Additionally, LEDs are available in shapes other than the classic light bulb. Due to their small size and variety of shapes, sizes, and uses, LED illumination options allow for a virtually limitless number of applications in the house.
Terminology
When purchasing conventional incandescent light bulbs, all that was necessary to consider was the bulb's form, wattage, which represented how brilliant the bulb was, and screw base size, which ensured that the bulb would fit into the lamp.
With CFLs, consumers now have a choice between light appearances that are typically referred to as gentle white, brilliant white, and daylight. Bright white and daylight are more sharp and colder with a blueish look, while soft white has a warm tone similar to an incandescent lamp.
Three ideas are crucial to comprehend when using LEDs.
1. Brightness
2. Luminous Appearance
3. Accurate Color
We want to make sure we are purchasing the appropriate product for the task because LED products are still more costly than similar incandescent products and will have a much longer lifespan.
Brightness:
First of all, we need to dispel the myth that power equates to luminosity. Since LED products use much less power (Watts) than incandescent bulbs do, it is difficult to compare the luminosity of an incandescent and an LED bulb based on wattage. Wattage and brightness for incandescent bulbs did, however, have a clear connection.
Lumens are the only consideration when evaluating an LED light's luminosity. The lumen, a unit of brightness measurement, indicates how much light a specific illumination item produces.
For comparison, a normal 60 W incandescent lamp produces about 800 lumens.
Luminous Appearance:
In kelvin, the colour look of light is quantified as the associated colour temperature (CCT). (K). We must search for the kelvin number to determine whether a lighting fixture or lamp produces a warmer or sharper, cooler light. The light will look warmer the lower the number, and cooler and more bluish the higher the number. The colour temperature of a standard incandescent lamp ranges from 2700K to 3000K. On a clear day, the sun at midday emits illumination that is about 5500K.
People frequently criticise CFL lamps for having a colder, more clinical look than incandescent bulbs. The problem here is that they opted for a cold, high-kelvin colour tone rather than a warmer one.
Accurate Color:
Have you ever gone shopping and wondered if you might be colour-blind because you couldn't quite tell whether the item of apparel you were eyeing was a dark green or blue? If so, the store's lighting device failed to show colours accurately for you.
The capacity of various light sources to "correctly" show an object's colour varies. And by properly, we refer to in comparison to an incandescent light lamp or a natural light source like the sun.
The Color representation Index, or abbreviated CRI, is a measure of colour representation. Scale values range from 0 to 100. The CRI of a 2700K incandescent light bulb is 100.
With today's LED technology, a CRI number above 80 is regarded as excellent and will be adequate for the majority of applications. We describe why better colour rendering of 90 or higher may be preferable for some regions in the following part.
