Most people are by now aware that traditional incandescent light bulbs are fast becoming a thing of the past and that LED (rather than CFL) alternatives represent the future of low-energy, low-cost, low-environmental impact lighting. But where to begin?
Well you could simply rush out and buy LED replacements for every light bulb you presently own but I wouldn't advise it. First of all it would be really quite expensive, but also the odds of getting things badly wrong with this approach are quite considerable.
LED lighting is a wholly different technology to anything you might have experienced before and it takes time and a bit of trial and error to figure out what works best for your particular lighting needs. But when you get it right, the payback is more than worth it with a clean contemporary look that also delivers a massive drop in electricity costs.
So the best advice is to start with a space where the lights are switched on a lot of the time, or that has more lights than other rooms, or simply where the lighting could do with some improvement. This gives you the best chance possible of seeing tangible early results in terms of cost saving and/or quality of lighting.
Getting off to a successful start this way is important since it provides the encouragement to proceed with further steps towards finally replacing all your incandescent lighting with LED. The room that most people nominate to start with is, unsurprisingly, the kitchen. This usually has many lights that also get used a lot and a kitchen lighting makeover invariably seems to appeal.
It is common these days to find large numbers of halogen spots either recessed or track mounted in kitchens. The quantity of electricity that these turn into waste heat (rather than light) is staggering yet the solution really is as simple as removing the halogen lamps and retrofitting LED lights specified to deliver the same level of luminosity. For MR16 low voltage lamps you also need to replace the 12 volt transformers with an LED driver, but for GU10 LED bulbs that run on mains voltage that's it.
The same holds true for concealed lighting tucked under, above or inside cabinets as these too can be replaced with LED strips or mini spots. This is also a great opportunity to add lighting whilst you're at it since LED strip lighting is easy to install, lightweight, and is packaged in a variety of forms that can be trimmed or joined as required. LED lighting to accent covings, plinths and set into kickboards to illuminate the floor are all popular techniques.
There are 3 main points to bear in mind when considering LED lighting.
1. Quality counts. It's only natural to count the cost but what really counts with LED lighting is quality and the two are mostly related. Cheap products may look like a bargain but they won't perform as well or produce the savings you should expect (recall that incandescent bulbs cost little to buy but ultimately represent a terrible waste of money when you calculate the true "cost of ownership"). Look out for respected brands such as Sharp's Zenigata or the Cree Evolux.
2. Cost. The real cost of lighting is the price of the bulb(s) plus the cost of the electricity. Over say 50,000 hours, a regular 50 watt halogen bulb will need to be replaced 25 times and cost 1,000 times the price of the bulb in electricity. An equivalent LED will require no replacement and cost much the same to run over all that time as it costs to buy. So over 50,000 hours the true cost of a $20 LED is likely to work out at (20 + 20) $40 and that of a $1 halogen at ((1 * 25) + (1 * 1000)) $1025.
3. Usage. LED lighting is most effective if you use multiple light sources of varying intensity and color ranges. Although very bright, they tend not to project light as far as incandescent lights do, so one of the most common ways to resolve these characteristics is to simply reflect the light off a nearby surface. This produces a diffuse light that fills the space and neatly kills two birds with one stone.
To find out more check out these articles that examine the subjects of 12v LED lights and GU10 LED lights in more detail.
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