What are the Advantages to Switching to LED Lights?
Over the last decade, LED lighting has developed from being a rare, energy efficient choice into a widely used lighting option for homes, businesses and organisations. For example, LED rope lights have a wide range of benefits. They’re energy efficient, capable of producing a large amount of light at a low wattage. They’re also affordable in the long term, with lower long-term costs than their fluorescent or incandescent light counterparts.
The advantages of LED lighting are extensive, and range from obvious benefits to ones you might never have even considered.
Affordability
LED lighting not only lasts for a long time – it also costs very little to run. Because of the incredible energy efficiency of LED light bulbs, switching to LED light can result in savings of hundreds of pounds per year for most houses and apartments.
On average, UK homeowners save £240 per year by replacing incandescent lighting with LED lighting. Even switching from energy efficient light bulbs results in savings of £27 per year in reduced electricity consumption alone. The figures above do not take into account the fact that LED light bulbs last longer than incandescent of energy efficient bulbs, making the cost of replacing bulbs far lower over a long-term period.
While the savings are significant for homeowners, they’re bigger for businesses and organisations with serious lighting needs. The greater a business’s artificial lighting requirements, the more it can save by switching to LED light bulbs. Many businesses can lower their lighting energy consumption by 75% by switching to LED lighting. Over the course of a decade, this can result in savings of hundreds of thousands of pounds for businesses with large artificial lighting needs.
Environmentally Friendly
Not only are LED lights energy efficient and inexpensive – LED lighting also contains no toxic chemicals. This makes it a much more environmentally friendly option than fluorescent lights, which contain hazardous substances such as mercury.
Since LED lights last for significantly longer than incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs, they produce significantly less waste. They’re also easy to recycle, as LED lights contain no hazardous or toxic materials that can damage the environment. LED lighting is also good for the local environment. LEDs produce an incredibly tiny amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, making them a dependable option for storage facilities and industrial buildings that contain UV-sensitive products and materials.
Versatility
Due to their size, LEDs are amazingly versatile. LED lighting is used not only for visibility and general lighting – it’s also used for architectural downlighting in an incredible range of settings and projects.
LEDs are also widely used in lamps, appliances and consumer electronics. LEDs are easy to install as strips beneath cabinets, tablets and other furniture. They’re also a great tool for lighting staircases, hallways and other potentially dangerous areas. Since LEDs create directional light, they’re fantastic tools for lighting specific items or features within a room. LED downlighting can be used to light kitchen counters, work desks, dining tables and other important areas within an interior space.
Durability
LED lights use proven technology and have a simple design, they’re highly durable and rarely fail. While not all LED light bulbs achieve 50,000 hours of usage, most LED lights are supported by confident, effective manufacturer warranties.
This great durability has several benefits for end users. Since LED light bulbs last a long time and use a durable design and materials, they rarely need to be replaced early, when compared to incandescent or fluorescent light bulbs. LED lights are also significantly safer than incandescent lights. Since they produce a fraction as much heat, LED light bulbs are less of a fire risk and are less likely to lead to burns and injuries during replacement or removal.
Energy Efficient
LED lighting is extremely energy efficient. Most LED light bulbs use only a fraction as much light as similar fluorescent or incandescent light bulbs, making them far less of a drain on your building’s energy consumption.
On average, LED light bulbs are four to five times as efficient as incandescent lights and measurably more efficient than fluorescent lighting, based on their rating using the Lumen system. LED lighting is also capable of producing a large amount of light at a much lower wattage than conventional lighting. Widely available LED lights produce between 46 and 75 lumens per watt, versus 16.7 to 19.8 lumens per watt for incandescent lighting.
