You might not have made a note of how many light bulbs you’ve purchased since September 1, 2018 but that doesn’t mean the date is irrelevant. The EU-wide ban kicked in on September 1 and halogen light bulbs have been unavailable ever since. How has this impacted your purchase habits?
Though shops are allowed to sell their old halogen stock, the versatile LED bulb is rapidly taking its place in efficiency. Indeed, you still find them in specialised ovens, cooker hoods
and security lights.
Why buying LED bulbs makes sense
Led lighting benefits include energy efficiency and lower maintenance costs.
The first benefit of led lights is that they are more energy efficient than traditional bulbs. They use less power to light up a room and can last for a long time without needing to be replaced. This means that their lower energy consumption will help you save money in the long run.
Another important benefit of led lights is that they have a much longer lifespan than traditional bulbs. They can last for as many as 50,000 hours before they need to be replaced, which is about five years if they are used for eight hours per day. This means that you won’t have to worry about wasting money on replacing them so often like you would with other bulbs.
LED lighting is not only a more sustainable alternative to traditional light bulbs, but it also saves money in the long run.
The average lifespan of a new LED bulb is around 25,000 hours. This means that the average LED bulb will last around 11 years before it needs to be replaced. In contrast, a typical incandescent bulb will last around 1,200 hours before it burns out and needs to be replaced. This means that on average an LED bulb will last over 20 times longer than a traditional incandescent bulb.
The energy efficiency of LEDs also makes them cheaper to run than traditional lig
ht bulbs.
LEDs produce less heat and consume less energy than other lighting options.
This makes them cheaper in the long run as they use less electricity and don't need to be replaced as often as other light sources.
Saving money with LED bulbs
In the UK, lighting accounts for 15% of a typical household’s electricity bill.
You can save £2-3 per year for every traditional halogen bulb you switch to a similarly bright LED bulb (see our table below for more).
If the average UK household replaced all of their bulbs with LEDs, it would cost about £100 and save about £40 a year on bills.
Replacing a 50W halogen with an LED equivalent could cut your energy costs by £75 over the lifetime of the bulb – not including the price all the replacement halogen bulbs you no longer need to buy; of a typical LED costs between £2.50-12.
Saving carbon emissions with LED blubs
For every traditional halogen bulb you switch from and replace with a similarly bright LED bulb, you can save around 5kg of CO2 emissions.
If all 28 million homes in Britain switched to 100% LED bulbs, we could save 17 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
LED buying guide – what to look for
Most LED bulbs will contains information to help you choose the right bulb for you.
Packs often state the bulb ‘colour’ there are 3 main types, it will also give you the equivalent wattage of the old halogen bulbs e.g. 40W or 60W or 100W.
warm is a yellow colour, ideal for bedrooms, living spaces and dining rooms
cool gives a bluer, brighter light. You may prefer this in kitchens and bathrooms, where you need a brighter light to perform tasks
daylight is the ‘coldest’ and closest to pure form of white light, often used by professional backlighting.
Drilling down, you can also find:
Kelvin: This relates to colour: 2700K or less matches the warm tones of a traditional bulb
Lumens: This is how bright the blub is – the higher the lumens, the brighter the bulb will be. A 1,000+ lumen bulb, is equivalent to a 75-100W traditional bulb
Beam angle: A wide-angle bulb is usually good for most household bulbs, while you might want a a narrower spotlight for desk lamps and other purposes.
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