Lightbulbs that will give a lightbulb

Lightbulbs that will give a lightbulb

Since electricity was discovered by Thomas Edison about 140 years ago people have used the incandescent lightbulb. Up to now most people are still using the incandescent lightbulb despite new and improved lightbulbs like the LED (light emitting diode) being brought on the market. The biggest energy waster.  One of  the  biggest problems for people is to remember to switch off lights when they leave a room. This is a big energy waster, but with LED the consequences of this common mistake is much less. The advantages of LED lightbulbs compared to fluorescent lightbulbs are immense.

The LED is a version of solid-state lightning. Semiconductors turn electricity into light.  In past times LEDs were mainly used for indicator and traffic lights, but has now evolved into every day household used lightning bulbs. LEDs last up to 25 times longer than an incandescent lightbulb and use up to between 20%-25% less energy (Energy.gov).

LEDs

                                                                                                                                           

The prices of LED lightbulbs could vary from around R 200 per bulb and the cost of an average lightbulb is round about R 15. This makes LEDs significantly a lot more expensive in the short term, but in long term it hold so much advantages. You don’t have to change it so often and you make up your money by the amount of electricity you save. It is not guaranteed that you will earn your money back with LEDs compared to average light bulbs (Lumi, n.d).

The whole sizes of the bulbs are practically the same. With both available in all the different fittings. LEDs and average bulbs both come in small carton boxes of minimum expense. LEDs don’t give off heat. So LEDs cannot be used for the heating and lighting of snake cages, breeding boxes for birds and a lot other uses. This is where the use of average lightbulbs that give off heat with their high energy usage is better suited than LEDs.

I will recommend the use of LEDs in established buildings where the usage of lights is very high, because then the power saving component of the bulb can play a role and reduce electricity bills. It will also reduce the maintenance of the bulbs in terms of replacing them. In houses where the lights are only used during night or for lights which have minimum working hours, I would rather prefer the average incandescent light bulbs.

Reference list:

Energy.Gov. Accessed 11 May 2013. [Online]. < http://energy.gov/articles/askenergysaver-led-lights>

Lumi. Accessed 11 May 2013. [Online]. < http://www.led-lights.co.za/lumi-led/products/led-replacement-light-bulb/standard-led-light-bulbs/>