LED vs. Incandescent Holiday Lighting
The holidays are quickly approaching, and we know that means one thing: Christmas lights! Decorating your home is a major way to celebrate the season and show off your house in your neighborhood. Lighting is a fun way to express yourself and spend time with your family.
Lighting your home for the holidays is tradition, but even light technology has progressed greatly in the past few years. A question that we constantly get around the holidays is about the benefits of using LED vs. incandescent lighting. It’s incredibly important to know the difference between these types of bulbs - no matter what kind of lighting project you’re doing.
We at Axiom Power find it important that we educate our clients on every piece of their lighting or electrical needs. Keep reading to learn more about LEDs and incandescent lights and which one could be best for your holiday plans this year!
Incandescent Lighting
What Are Incandescent Bulbs?
Incandescent lights produce light by heating a wire filament to a temperature that results in the generation of light. The metal wire is surrounded by a translucent glass bulb that is either filled with an inert glass or is a vacuum.
Why Should You Buy Incandescent?
Incandescent bulbs are surprisingly cheap to manufacture and are also fairly cheap to buy. These bulbs are the traditional light bulbs that we all know and recognize. Despite their former popularity, they have been replaced by more energy-efficient bulbs.
The typical incandescent bulb lasts about 1,000 hours, and a 12-watt LED bulb lasts about 25,000 hours. An advantage of these bulbs is that they are available in a wide, adaptable range of voltages, light outputs, and current. They are also the cheapest light on the market. They also render color.
Why Not Buy the Cheapest Bulbs?
There are three primary negatives to using incandescent rather than LEDs.
Incandescent lights are the least energy-efficient lights on the market.
Incandescent lights have the shortest lifespan on the market. This results in a much higher maintenance cost for you.
Incandescent lights are omnidirectional light sources. Because these lights are 360 degrees, they create a large system inefficiency due to the light needing to be reflected and redirected.
Where and How Should You Use Incandescent?
Typically, incandescent lights are used for residential interiors. They’re commonly used in lamps, hallway lighting, accent lighting, and chandeliers. These lights are not typically used outdoors or for commercial lighting because of their short lifespan and efficiency.
Incandescent Christmas lights emit a level of heat that LED lights don’t.
Did you know that 90% of the energy emitted by an incandescent holiday
light is in the form of heat, not in the form of light?!
LED Christmas lights are all light and no heat.
That's why they are massively more efficient.
LED Lighting
What Are LED Bulbs?
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. A diode is an electrical component with two electrodes through which electricity flows. They are typically made from semi-conductive materials. When the current passes through the semiconductor material, then the device emits visible light.
Why Should You Buy LEDs?
There are four major advantages to LED lighting:
LEDs have an extremely long lifespan. New LEDs can last up to 50,000-100,000 hours.
LEDs are very energy-efficient - especially compared to other types of bulbs on the market. They emit very little heat, and they emit light directionally - which gives it less loss from the need to be redirected.
LEDs offer very high light quality compared to incandescent lights. LEDs can achieve the same amount of color rendering as incandescent versions at double the efficiency while not emitting heat.
LEDs are very low maintenance in cost and hassle. Once you set your lights, you can forget about them - and they’ll save you loads on your energy bill.
Where and How Should You Use LEDs?
While the first use of LEDs was in circuit boards for computers, they have majorly expanded their applications to traffic lights, lighted signs, and indoor and outdoor lighting.
LED string lights (festoon/party lights) have become the standard for decorating your home and even commercial spaces like restaurants. LEDs are truly an adaptable light source with what feels like endless possibilities - and we like that!
Light it Up for the Holidays
Now you know the major differences between LEDs and incandescent lights. When it comes to holiday decor, the options for LEDs have greatly expanded through the years. We tend to recommend these bulbs more due to all their capabilities. Knowing when, where, and why to use each of these types of light bulbs helps you to create some really cool lighting designs, but can also save you time & money!
At Axiom Power, we want you to be able to run your lights as efficiently as possible. Execute your next lighting project with ease and confidence! We’ll help you pick the right fixtures and bulbs and even install easy to access outlets for all your holiday décor. (And, thanks to technology you can control them all from an app on your phone!)
See what’s possible! If you have any questions about changing the types of lights you use in your home’s interiors and exteriors, don’t hesitate to give us a call today to schedule an in-home consultation.