LED bulbs: what to know before replacing old lamps
Lighting technology has made great strides in recent years, leading to bulbs capable of offering exceptional performance using very few watts. In most cases, it is not even necessary to adapt the electrical contacts and, indeed, it is possible to replace an old-fashioned light bulb with a new one without worries.
The new LED bulbs bring undoubted advantages in terms of durability and performance , to the benefit of consumption.
Indeed, with this new technology it has been possible to further expand the range, and therefore different solutions can be found for a single bulb. Let's see, therefore, what precautions should be taken when choosing.
Always painless replacement… or almost
The LED bulbs are designed to adapt to the classic connections already on the market . Therefore, the classic E27 or E14 connections are still valid.
The main difference of an LED type bulb, and as it was also for the previous "low consumption" ones, consists in the presence of the transformer in the base of the bulb. This is used to provide the individual LEDs, located inside the cap, with the correct voltage , wattage and current intensity .
In fact, LEDs are normally made to operate at 12 or 24 Volts , therefore they would be unsuitable for the 220 Volt home network.
Thanks to the shape of the LED bulbs, with built-in transformer, just replace the old one with the new one and everything will work smoothly. However, in the case of replacing old neon tubes, it will be advisable to slightly modify the system . However, new specific starters are often supplied with the LED tube to make them compatible and functional.
Gradation
As mentioned at the beginning, by going to a shop and going to the LED light bulb department, you will notice that for the same light bulb there are various wordings such as " cold light ", " warm light " or numbers accompanied by the letter " K ". . These words serve to indicate the degree of illumination that is returned, expressed in Kelvin degrees . These degrees express the so-called color temperature on a scale.
At lower numbers, usually starting from 2700 Kelvin , the lighting is yellow , and gradually turns towards a white tone, detectable around 6500 K. From then on the shade turns towards blue .
The ideal choice of light temperature, therefore, depends on many factors, not least personal taste, but also the type of use , be it domestic or industrial, or even on the type of room in which they must be inserted. For example, a yellowish shade is recommended in the bedroom, as it is more reminiscent of the light emitted at dawn and dusk.
Power of the bulbs
Another very important factor to consider when purchasing new light bulbs concerns the power . This, expressed in Watts , is very different from that of previous generations. Especially in the case of old incandescent light bulbs, where a normal 25 Watt bulb can now easily be replaced with a 4 Watt LED.
It can easily be deduced that the savings in terms of power are notable , and this allows you to illuminate your home with much less energy. Less power, in fact, does not mean less illuminating power, on the contrary! It will be enough to consult the lumens emitted by the bulb , as indicated on each individual package, to realize that a 4 Watt bulb well exceeds 200 lumens , in some cases approaching 300. These are very respectable figures, more than sufficient for small light points such as bedside lamps, but also corridor wall lights.
In conclusion we can say that LED bulbs are the best choice in terms of energy efficiency nowadays, and as such they have supplanted previous systems, whether incandescent or "low consumption".
However, new light bulbs require greater specific knowledge, as they can have values that are very different from each other, suitable for different situations. Therefore, it is good practice to first check the type of attachment before purchasing, and then continue the search by consulting the Watts absorbed, the Kelvin degree of the light beam and last, but not least, the lumens emitted. All these values, if well evaluated, will help us make the right choice .
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The article LED bulbs: what to know before replacing old lamps comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/lampadine-led-cosa-sapere-prima-di-sostituire-le-vecchie-lampade/ on Sun, 01 Oct 2023 22:37:11 +0000.