6 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE

BUYINGLED LIGHT BULBSwww.reelcaribbeanenergy.com

Though LED light bulbs are more expensive up front, in the long run, they’ll pay for themselves within a few months with the savings on your utility bills.

Despite the cost, now’s the right time to switch to LEDs. These bulbs have made significant advances over the last few years, finally delivering the warm

light incandescent have comforted us with for decades.

More than ever, there is also an overwhelming number of LED varieties, and choosing an LED is entirely different from picking up an incandescent.

Here’s 6 Things To Know Before Buying

LED Light bulbs

You’re probably used to shopping for light bulbs in watts, with watts determining the brightness of the bulb. The brightness of LEDs, however, is determined a little differently.

Actually, wattage isn’t an indication of brightness. It’s a measurement of how much energy a bulb is drawing. So an LED would draw less than an incandescent.

For example, an LED bulb with comparable brightness to a 60-watt incandescent is only 8 to 12 watts.

So forget about watts here. The measurement for LED bulbs is lumens. This is the brightness of the bulb. An incandescent can draw up to five times as many watts for the same number of lumens. To shine at 800 lumens (lm), you’d use the 60-watt incandescent or a 8-12 watt LED.

1. It’s Not About Watts

2. LEDs Are ColorfulLED bulbs are capable of displaying an impressive color range, from purple to red, to a spectrum of whites and yellows. For the home, however, you’re likely looking for something similar to the light that incandescent produce.

The popular colors available for LEDs are “warm white” or “soft white” and “bright white.”

Warm white and soft white will produce a yellow hue, close to incandescent, while bulbs labeled as bright white will produce a whiter light, closer to daylight and similar to what you see in retail stores.Light color (also known as color temperature) is measured in kelvins. Your typical incandescent is somewhere between 2,700 and 3,500K. So this is what you’d look for when shopping for LEDs.

Think of switching to LED lights as an investment. LED light bulbs have been coming down in price over the years, but they are still priced higher than normal bulbs.

However, over time, your investment in the LED light bulbs are going to pay off. Within a few months, your energy bill will have reduced enough to save what you spent on the bulbs. You’ll notice less heat production from the new LED bulbs, longer bulb life and other LED benefits. In order to see the benefits, though, you’ll need to replace all the bulbs in your house…not just one or two.

3. With Your Investment, You Start Saving

4. Dimming Options

Most dimmer lights are designed to work with incandescents, and they work by reducing the amount of electricity sent to the bulb. Since there’s no direct correlation between LED brightness and energy being drawn…you have to consider what to do if you are replacing a dimmer light bulb.

You can either find an LED bulb that’s compatible with a traditional dimmer, or replace your current dimming switch to make it LED-compatible. You can usually see on the bulb packaging label whether it is capable of dimming.

While LED lightbulbs are much cooler than traditional incandescents, they still produce heat. The heat from the bulb is pulled away with a heat sink in the base of the bulb. It then dissipates into the air.

If an LED bulb doesn’t have anywhere for the heat to go, it will die quicker. Be sure not to put your LED bulb in an enclosed fixture. Or look for LEDs that are approved for enclosed spaces.

5. Keep ‘em cool

6. Stay in Shape

Because of the heat sinks, many LED bulbs have a metal fin at the bottom. This makes the lightbulb have a shape that only an engineer could love.

If your light fixture is in an obviously visible location, you’ll want to consider the shape of your new bulb. The latest LED bulb styles now offer omni-directional light, meaning they give off light from multiple directions instead of only from the top.

Original designs of bulbs came in a “snow cone shape” and only offered light from the top. So be sure to consider what shape and direction the light will come from your bulb.

For more information about the benefits of LED, or to explore lighting for your business, visit

www.reelcaribbeanenergy.com