LED lighting used to be an expensive and prohibitive technology that was restricted to only small, precise applications. However, advancements have seen this technology plummet in price and soar in availability to the point where itandrsquo;s now one of the most popular upgrades for home owners. There are plenty of reasons why you should switch your home to LED lights, including many which have to do with just how much money you could save.
Here are five reasons why you should switch over to energy-efficient LED lighting in your home.
Superior Longevity
One of the largest benefits to an LED lightbulb is the fact that you change it once and then wonandrsquo;t have to change it again for as much as 50,000 hours. If we do the math, thatandrsquo;s more than 11 years between bulb changes and thatandrsquo;s if you leave the bulb on constantly the entire time. However, you donandrsquo;t usually leave the bulb on constantly, and that means youandrsquo;ll only extend its lifespan. In fact, when used just eight hours a day, an LED bulb can last as long as 17 years! Can you imagine having to never worry about changing a lightbulb again for nearly two decades? For some of those hard-to-reach lights in your house, that might be a great decision.
Color Customization
LED lights are unique in that many give you complete color customization to match exactly what youandrsquo;re looking for. Do you want something that matches the traditional golden or yellow-ish hue of a standard incandescent lightbulb? There are plenty which emulate that. What about something with a more pure-white color? Those are available too. In fact, some bulbs let you choose the color you want.
Other bulbs offer you even greater flexibility and fun options by letting you select pretty much any color of the rainbow! Hosting a spooky Halloween party in your home? Change the light to red, orange or another mood-setting color. Other bulbs give you dimming options and even smart-home control!
Ready Availability
LED bulbs used to be extremely rare and difficult to acquire and as a result, they were tremendously expensive. Not anymore! Today, you can buy LED lightbulbs at nearly any home improvement or hardware store, as well as many other big-box retailers, small shops and anywhere else that sells replacement lightbulbs. The price has also dropped as a resultandmdash;today, an LED bulb can cost as low as $8 to $10 or so, with even higher-end and feature-loaded bulbs running well under $30. When you consider the cost of replacing this bulb just once for the next nearly two decades, itandrsquo;s easy to see how this is a self-funding upgrade.
Reduced Heat Impact
Does it ever seem like your home gets particularly hot when you have on too many lights? Old incandescent bulbs burned energy into both light and heat. This means that not only did they burn a lot more energy than todayandrsquo;s LED technology, but they could actually heat rooms for long periods of time. During winter, this isnandrsquo;t necessarily a bad thing. However, during summer, when many people struggle to keep their homes cool and comfortable, additional sources of indoor heat are not something with which you want to deal.
LED lighting does produce heat, but itandrsquo;s considerably less than most incandescent bulbs. This means they impact your indoor temperature far less and have a much lower impact on your comfort when left on for long periods of time. This makes them ideal for heavily-used rooms like kitchens and living rooms and even better for offices which may keep the lights on for 12 hours or more a day.
Energy Efficiency
Finally, arguably the largest benefit to switching to LED lightbulbs is the fact that theyandrsquo;re so much more energy-efficient than any other previous type of lighting, even more so than compact fluorescent bulbs, or CFLs. For comparison, some studies have found that LED lightbulbs use roughly 300 percent less energy each month than a standard incandescent bulb of the same approximate brightness.
Thatandrsquo;s a huge chunk of money you could save each month on energy! By switching even just your most-used lights over to LED lightbulbs, the cost of the upgrade could pay for itself in savings in as little as just a few short months.
Have a problem with your electrical system? Our San Jose electricians can fix it! Call Valley Heating, Cooling, Electrical and Solar at (408) 868-5500 today to request more information.