The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Installing Modern LED Lights In Your Home

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post brought to you so you could learn how to install modern LED lights in your home. I would love to add these brightly colored lights to where I live. How about you? It just gives it that extra beauty. 

IMG Credit: Flickr

LED lighting is set to take over the world. There are good reasons for that and we will explore them later. Lighting in the home is a very important part of the whole design. Designers and architects are well aware of this and pay attention to it at an early stage in the planning. Correct lighting techniques can change the entire mood of a room at the flick of a switch, from a commercial ambiance on second, to a romantic one the next.

Many people who build their own homes to not pay enough attention to the lighting scheme. It seems less important than the choice of bathroom suite or kitchen cabinet design. It is a shame that the lighting is neglected, as the quality of the build suffers because of it. During construction is obviously the best time to install elaborate lighting circuits as it is a messy job to do it afterwards.

Let’s first take a look at lighting solutions available for each room in the house.

Loft Lighting
Lofts are usually illuminated by fluorescent lights. They are well suited for the loft, unless it has been converted, where the quality of light isn’t so important. After all, it isn’t a room in which we live.

LED Lights in the Bedroom
The bedroom needs two, or three lighting solutions. First of all there is the main lighting that is up high. This light, ideally, can be dimmed. Sometimes bright light is needed when dressing, for example, but is too harsh for sleepy eyes. Secondly, task lighting is needed for personal grooming. These lights are ideally placed either side of the mirror, so shadows are minimised. Thirdly, there is subdued lighting to consider. This can be for reading before going to sleep, or for other things. Bedside lamps are ideally suited to this purpose. LED replacement bulbs are available from Wattlite and many other shops, that are an ideal replacement for the incandescent ones.

Bathroom LED Lights
Modern bathrooms are making good use of recessed ceiling downlights as a solution that enhances the overall design. It is not usually necessary to dim the lights but to have that function will do no harm. Maybe the light level will need to be lowered for a relaxing bath sometimes. Task lighting, as in the bedroom, is best achieved by placing the lights to either side of the mirror.

There are a range of light fittings designed purely for effect. These can be recessed into bath panels, skirting boards, under shelves; anywhere you can think of. There are even illuminated floor tiles that will impress your friends and family. The shadows created by uplighting, however, aren’t flattering to someone standing in front of a mirror.

Kitchen
The most effective and functional lighting solution for the kitchen is counter lighting mounted underneath wall cupboards. It creates a well lit, safe working area on the counter and, in the evenings, creates a calm mood. Other lighting solutions for the kitchen come built into appliances such as cooker hoods. As in the bathroom, aesthetic lighting can be installed anywhere, such as the kick boards, for example. The main light source, these days, comes from recessed ceiling lights, as in the bathroom.

Conservatory
The most popular form of lighting in a conservatory is incorporated within a cooling fan mounted on the ceiling. There is no reason, however, that small LED lights should not be fitted in skirting boards and recessed into the uPVC central roof trim.

Advantages of LED Lights

LED lighting is set to take over for some very good reasons. It has taken a long time and needed some brilliant minds to perfect this invention. Here are some advantages of using LEDs.

Energy Savings. In this age of austerity and rising fuel bills, it has never been so important to cut down on consumption at home or in the workplace. Led lights use a fraction of the energy of their dated counterparts.
Using the formula P = V x I, where P is the power, V is the running voltage, and I is the current, it is easy to see how reducing the running voltage from 230v down to 12v, or 24v, significantly reduces the power used. Since it is the power you are paying for on your meter, the savings are obvious.
Those in the know will see that the power factor has not been included in the calculation. Well, this factor is not needed for the amateur coming up with a ballpark figure.

LEDs run cool too, so there is very little energy wasted as heat compared to incandescent bulbs. Heat means wasted energy.

Convenience. Because the led light run cool, they have much greater flexibility in the situations where they can be used. Using LEDs for under cupboard lighting or under shelves makes the job of the designer much easier.

Compatibility. There are now LED replacement bulbs for almost every light fitting, so it is simple to replace the old bulbs and start making savings straight away.

Instant Light. When an LED light is turned on, it illuminates instantly. The older style energy saving bulbs seemed to take an age to warm up to a useful level.

Eco-Friendly. Led bulbs contain no chemicals, such as mercury, that harm the environment. In the past, manufacturers were forced to use lots of harmful substances in order to make bulbs illuminate.

Durability. Every time light bulbs are switched on and off; it reduces their lifespan. In fact, an incandescent bulb that is left switched on can often run for many years before blowing. With LED bulbs, switching has no effect.

Disadvantages of LED Lights

Initial Cost. Led bulbs cost more to buy initially, but this is offset by the fact that they last for a very long time and pay for themselves many times over.

Dimming. There are some bulbs that can’t be dimmed. The solution is to buy bulbs that can be; simple.

As you can see from the points made above, the advantages of using LED lighting far outweigh the disadvantages. As new light fittings are designed, they will have LED bulbs incorporated and you can expect to see the demise of most other forms of light bulb over the next twenty years. The revolution has begun.