J C Lighting

Brief guide to replace your bulbs with led

Currently, there are hundreds of models of led bulbs, and each one is adjusted to a specific need, to space, to a home. For some people, it can be an odyssey to choose the ideal LED bulb for each place. For this reason, we have developed a simple guide to replace your bulbs with LEDs at home.

It is a simple process, but it has to be orderly and consistent. Although it is a simple light bulb, it will give us light each night of its approximate 25,000 hours of life that each one has, so it is convenient to know how to choose and do it correctly.

A matter of priorities

Not all pockets can afford to change all the  LED bulbs in a home, so as a first tip, we will take into account the priorities regarding the use of these.
The areas of greatest to least use in a home as a general rule:

• Kitchen
• Living room / dining room
• Bedrooms
• Bath
• Corridor

In addition, in each stay, we will have a different need. Who doesn’t have or has had halogen bulbs in the hallway? However, in the rooms, it is more common to have a small lamp or ceiling, while in the kitchen the most common are low-consumption downlights or fluorescent tubes. Therefore, we are going to change them from higher to lower use. Recall that the total electricity bill for lighting a home is usually around 30%, so do the numbers and you will end up with the conclusion that the switch to  LED  is more than necessary.

What kind of light to choose

The shade of light to choose for the different rooms is one of the most recurrent questions from our clients. In the past, there wasn’t much to choose from, but today there are more options. Although each client is indeed a world within the choice of the tonality of led bulbs, we always recommend this type of tonality:

Tonality 6400K / 6000K – Cold light

This is the type of light most chosen for kitchens, because the high luminosity and clarity of this type of light, allows clarity when cooking and preparing food in general.

Tonality 4200K – Daylight

Also chosen in many kitchens, it is a common color in bathrooms. A toneless strident than the light in 6000K, allows having high luminosity without that bluish tone.

Tonality 3000 / 2700K – Warm light

For the rest of the house, we always recommend the 3000K light. It imitates the incandescent light bulb and creates a much more welcoming and relaxed atmosphere.

The duration of led bulbs

This is a factor to take into account and it is not trivial. Currently, and given the great price competition in the market, we can find led bulbs from 50,000 hours to 8,000 hours of life. It is becoming less frequent to find them than 50,000 and the average hours of life are usually around 25,000 hours. But beware, let’s not be fooled by extremely low prices. We can get surprises with cheap led bulbs that do not last more than a year.

Equivalences of led bulbs

When it comes to replacing incandescent or low consumption bulbs with LED bulbs, it is important to know what the equivalence of the bulbs is. If not, we run the risk of being short of light or being dazzled. Below we show a table of the equivalence of the bulbs and their annual cost with average use.

Types of led bulbs and luminaires

As we have commented previously, each room normally needs a type of light bulb or luminaires. In the case of the kitchen, for example, it will be enough to change the fluorescent tubes for LEDs, or the downlights for  LED downlights. In the rooms, it will be enough with spherical bulbs with a classic thread or some halogen bulb, just as in the other rooms of the house. After the bathroom and hallway, it has generally been installed with halogen rings where we will put  GU10 led bulbs and some light bulbs in a mirror focus also spherical with E14 or E27 thread. The most important thing is to know what shade of light to install in each case and to acquire the necessary power to illuminate each room according to the needs. Currently, all kinds of led bulbs easily replace classic bulbs. 

The days with less light are coming

We are officially in the fall. That means that the days are getting shorter and we will need more light. This is therefore the best time to start the switch to lead those homes that have not already started. Led bulbs save 80% energy compared to traditional bulbs. And its price, more than affordable in recent months, has been below the price of energy-saving light bulbs. Does anyone remember them now?