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5 Things You MUST Know Before Buying LED Light Bulbs |
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Monday, 07 July 2008 |
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You may have heard that LED light bulbs are the future of lighting. You may also have heard that they're ready to replace all types of lighting in your house from Incandescents to Compact Fluorescents. I'm going to save you the hype and tell you what many sellers don't want you to know about LED Light Bulbs:
1. They give off focused light
LED Light bulbs give off directional light. They are not good replacements for bulbs used for lighting large areas - called general lighting. They're more suited for replacing spot light applications like track lighting, accent lighting, recessed (cans) lighting and outdoor security spotlights.
2. They give off blue light
Most people think that LED bulbs give off a bluish tint, described as a sci-fi creepy sort of light. This is sometimes true so watch out what color you are buying. LED light bulbs now come in different shades of white from warm to cold - but these will range from seller to seller.
The best way to tell the color of a light is to look for the rating in Kelvins (K).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature
3. They do not take heat well
Heat will drastically reduce the life on an LED light bulb. Make sure your investment isn't put to waste by putting your bulbs near a heat source.
4. They cannot be used with dimmers
All LED light bulbs currently being sold do not work with typical dimmers. You can find custom-built fixtures using LED's that come with their own power supplies and dimmer controls, but not if you're putting in a drop-in replacement LED light bulb like these:
You can replace these LED light bulbs in a socket that USES a dimmer, just don't use the dimmer control. It will either drastically shorten the life of your bulb or burn it out completely.
5. Lumens output is misleading and often exaggerated
In everyday terms, lumens is measured by taking a lumen measuring device and taking the average of the lumen rating all around a light source.
Source: http://www.led.net/pages/tech4.htm
An LED light bulb might have the same lumen rating as a 50W incandescent bulb, but it would be focused at a spot and would do a terrible job of lighting a small room, while the 50W incandescent would do quite well.
A lot of seller's exaggerate these ratings since there is no standard out right now for measuring the brightness of an LED bulb. The best way to really know what you're getting is to look at how they compare it to an incandescent or halogen bulb. If they have pictures then even better.
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