Why LED?
Would you like to save some money and improve the environment? Then choosing LED is a simple choice to make. LED lamps are easy to install into existing sockets and you can begin enjoy significant savings immediately.
LED is highly energy efficient - Less heat, more light, lower cost
Use less electricity for the same light output - 85% less electricity when compared to conventional lighting and around 18% less electricity compared to CFL.
Worldwide, around 20% of the electricity is consumed in lighting. LED can make a big impact on our energy use.
Energy savings made by using LED against other types of lamp
Great for business
For business and commercial use - switching to LED makes great finances sense.
1. Lower energy costs - We help businesses save several thousands USD per year - Every year. With the cost of LED falling, payback is from a few months for lamps to around 12-36 months for LED panels.
2.Lower maintenance and cleaning costs - No lamp or tube changes - items like LED panels are much easier to clean when compared with fluorescent tube panels.
3. More Sales? - When upgrading poorly lit areas with LED: we have had feedback from customers who have reported a better atmosphere for staff in offices. Also, reports from wholesalers and retailers have included better sales figures as product is lit better and customers are spending more time in store.
4. A great return - LED gives a great return for example and LED GU10 costing around USD 4 will save over USD 8 per year in energy costs. ( a 6 month payback and 195% return based on 3 hrs per day and 14 cents KWh)
A 600x600 LED panel retailing at around USD 95 will save USD 35 per year in energy with a return of 36% (12hrs day and 14 cents KWh)
LED lamps last much longer - Saving even more
Typically LED lamps have a lifetime of 25,000 hours - that is over 22 years if used 3 hours per day. Plus, with no filament LED lamps are more robust. This will result in you saving money on the replacement lamps and building maintenance.
Conventional bulbs last around 1,000-2,000 hours (1-2 years) and CFL around 6,000-15,000 (6 to 13 years). The cost of LED has dropped over the last few months for most lamps.
Save Now - Using 400W in on room? replace with only 50W of LED!
Gone are the days when a room was lit with just a single 60 W lamp. In living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens - they have been replaced with 8 or more spotlights. Each spotlight could be 35W or 50W (halogen) - leading to a power usage of up to 400W. With retrofit LED lamps, the energy used is lowered to just 52W (6.5W per lamp), for the same amount of light. With energy prices seemingly only going up - it makes sense to switch to LED.
LED runs cooler and can be safer
LED lamps run much cooler than traditional halogen lamps and can be less of a hazard. Halogen lamps are an inefficient way to heat a space. using LED will allow air -conditioning system to run more effectively. When lamps run cooler they minimise the deteoration to light fittings, shades and decoration which can occur with hot lamps - So your light fittings will last longer.
Warm White or Cool White?
With LED products, there is a choose of colours, choosing a colour will set the mood of your space.
Correlated colour temperature (CCT) in lighting describes how the colour of the light appears from a lamp, measured in Kelvins (K).
Imagine a scale from 1000K (very red) to 10,000K (very blue) (actual scale is wider). The higher up the scale you go, the closer the light resembles blue day light.
Confusingly, colour temperature does not describe the actual temperature of the light bulb itself but the colour it produces and counter-intuitively: the higher the colour temperature the "cooler" a lamp will look.
With LED products, there is a choose of colours, choosing a colour will set the mood of your space.
Correlated colour temperature (CCT) in lighting describes how the colour of the light appears from a lamp, measured in Kelvins (K).
Imagine a scale from 1000K (very red) to 10,000K (very blue) (actual scale is wider). The higher up the scale you go, the closer the light resembles blue day light.
Confusingly, colour temperature does not describe the actual temperature of the light bulb itself but the colour it produces and counter-intuitively: the higher the colour temperature the "cooler" a lamp will look.
Warm or cool?
There are no rules - the choice is about personal preference and use. If you like the traditional yellowish colour of a conventional light bulb then warm white around (2700-3000 K) would be the ideal choice, this is the most popular choice for homes. If you want modern, clean look, you may prefer the cleaner, brighter feel of a cool white lamp (4000K+). Cool white light contains more blue light and looks brighter to the eye (this is why cool white bulbs have a higher lumen output when compared to the equivalent warm white bulbs).
In commercial applications choosing the right colour temperature is important and will depend on the mood you want to create and the products you are promoting - for example freshly baked cookies and bread may look better under warm white light. A cool white may not make the product look as appealing but it would be a good idea to do some trials to see what works best.
Where can I use them?
Below are some common areas where the different colors can be used:
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Warm to warm white - living room, bedroom, hallway
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White to cool white - Kitchen, study, bathroom, cupboard, office, retail
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Daylight - Commercial, retail, art studios
Allow some time to get used to any change especially if changing from warm white to cool white.
Mix and Match?
There is no reason why you could not have a mixture in the same setting. For example, warm white for the main room lighting and cool white for task lighting over work areas.
What are Lumens?
Lumens = Light output
Think of lumens as a "new" way of knowing how bright a lamp is. In simple terms, Lumens (denoted by lm) are a measure of the total amount of visible light (to the human eye) from a lamp or light source. The higher the lumen rating the "brighter" the lamp will appear.
We have all bought 50W or 60W conventional light bulbs or spotlights in the past expecting a certain level of brightness. This incorrectly linked power consumption (Watts) to light output.
More light, less energy (watts) with LED
With low energy LED lamps, more light output can be achieved with much less power consumption. For example, a 6.5W LED lamp will give similar light output to a 50W halogen bulb. That's 87% less energy for the same light output! When using LED more energy is converted to light rather than heat. As technology improves, more lumens will be produced using even less Watts - i.e. more lumens per watt. So as a result, using Watts as a guide to brightness is no longer relevant.
Lumens - Conventional vs LED lamps
To achieve the same light output of a 60W convectional bulb you will need an LED lamp with around 800-850 lumens. All integral LED lamps have the lumen rating clearly marked on the package and on the lamp base.
Lumens and useful Lumens
For non-directional bulbs such as a globe, golf ball or candle shape, the total lumen output is calculated for all directions. With a directional bulb such as GU10 spotlight, the light is emitted in many directions, some of this light (spill light) may not be useful but it is counted in the total lumen rating.
To make comparisons fairer and easier the EU has recently introduced a "useful lumens" rating. This is a measurement of useful light emitted in a standardised 90 degree cone (see images below). The "useful lumen" rating is normally lower than the total lumen output but has more relevance to a spotlight bulb where useful light is in a forward focused direction.
How many lumens do I need?
There is no firmed answer - it will depend on a number of factors including: room size and shape, height of ceilings, colours scheme, type of lamps & fitting, task areas and needs of the user.
As a basic guide: below are the lumens required per Sq M (10.76 ft) for different room settings. In many cases a mixture of genersal and talk lighting will be required.
What is lux
Lux is a measure of illuminance which basically means it's a measure of how much light there is over a given surface area. One Lux (lx) is equal to one lumen per square meter.
1 lx = 1 lm/m2
Lighting Calculation
Step 1
Find out how many lux you need
The lighting table below tells you how many lux you need in each room or for various tasks. I've also thrown in some examples of moonlight and daylight for interest.
The values given in the table aim to assure safety, comfort and charm. There are times when more light may be available such as when there is bright sunlight spilling through a window or when more light is desirable such as for a small task.
We're going to work out the amount of light required for a kitchen.
Using the table above we can see that we need
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108 lux for ambient lighting
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538 lux for task lighting for food preparation
Lighting Calculation
Step 2
Work out how many lux you need
In this step we need to work out the area of the kitchen.
Let's say we have a 4m x 3m kitchen we multiply these two numbers together to get an area of 12 square meters.
To get the number of lumens we multiply the lux requirement from step 1 by the area.
This gives us 12 x 108 = 1296 lumens.
Task lighting in the kitchen
Here we're going to work out the surface are that needs to be lit for food preparation.
Let's say we want to light the counter top which measures 4m x 0.6m. That makes the area 2.4 square meters.
To get the number of lumens the calculation is 2.4 x 538 = 1291 lumens.
Lighting Calculation
Step 3
Work out how many bulbs you need
The number of lumens that a light bulb emits is usually labelled on the packaging
Number of bulbs for ambient lighting
Let's say we were going to use a fluorescent light source for the ambient lighting. Fluorescent tubes that emit 800 lumens each are available. One tube wouldn't be sufficient, but two tubes would give 1600 lumens which would be plenty for our 1296 lumen requirement.
Number of bulbs for task lighting
Let's say we want to use LEDs for the under the cabinet lighting and we've found a bulb we light which gives out 350 lumens.
So we need 1291/350 = 3.6 which means we need 4 of the bulbs to light the counter top.
That's it - we're done!
Light tips
understand how to light up your home
Installation guide
for the GCC region
In ground installations
Without drainage
With drainage
