LED Lighting: Bright Ideas for Energy Savings
This week on Thoughts from the Crawlspace, Jamie sheds light on the pros and cons of LED lighting, a technology that’s quickly becoming the go-to choice for modern homes. He breaks down why LEDs outperform traditional incandescent and fluorescent bulbs, from their long lifespan and energy savings to being safer for the environment.
But LEDs aren’t perfect. He also covers the downsides, like higher upfront costs and differences in light quality across brands. Plus, he offers practical tips for homeowners, including where LEDs are most effective and how to select the ideal brightness (in lumens) and color quality (CRI) for your space.
Episode Highlights
- LEDs save energy and last longer, making them ideal for modern homes.
- Compared to incandescent and fluorescent bulbs, LEDs offer clear advantages.
- While the upfront cost is higher, the long-term savings are significant.
- Quality matters, choose LEDs from trusted brands for consistent light.
- Perfect for hard-to-reach fixtures, LEDs reduce the hassle of frequent replacements.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
02:15 - Understanding LED Lighting
03:11 - The Advantages of LED Lighting
06:22 - Disadvantages of LED Lighting
11:15 - LED Lighting Considerations
Transcript
Welcome to Thoughts from the Crawl Space, a podcast where our goal as home inspection experts is to support and serve our community.
Speaker A:Whether you're a homeowner, home buyer, real estate agent, or investor, we believe everyone deserves solutions to their homeownership challenges and inspiration along the way.
Speaker A:Your path to success starts here.
Speaker A:Well, what lights up your life these days?
Speaker A:Hello, everybody.
Speaker A:Welcome back to another episode.
Speaker A:Today we are going to talk about interior lighting, more specifically, LED lighting.
Speaker A:The pros and the cons.
Speaker A:Now, you might be stuck in the past and still use incandescent bulbs, and that's perfectly fine.
Speaker A:Those were awesome.
Speaker A:And the push to get away from them was largely politically driven, not any necessarily problems with them.
Speaker A:They did burn hotter, they used more energy and so forth.
Speaker A:And then we went to primarily, what was it, fluorescent bulbs.
Speaker A:And fluorescent bulbs came in all shapes and sizes until somebody discovered mercury in them was no good.
Speaker A:Oh, we can't use those anymore because they just sit in landfills forever.
Speaker A:And they cost a lot to begin with.
Speaker A:So then we transitioned to LED bulbs.
Speaker A:And there are, I mean, you see LED bulbs on the inside of tires, on trucks, and under everything, and they are cool and they can do a lot of neat things and they, they don't overheat on Christmas trees and on and on and on.
Speaker A:So I wanted to just touch a little bit today on LEDs, what are the pros?
Speaker A:What are the cons?
Speaker A:Should you use them?
Speaker A:Shouldn't you use them?
Speaker A:Maybe you've outfitted your whole house in them already.
Speaker A:Maybe you're thinking about it.
Speaker A:So let's, let's dive into some of the facts on LED bulbs.
Speaker A:And this is coming from.
Speaker A:A lot of this information is coming from info guides from LED bulb manufacturers and things like that.
Speaker A:So if you're trying to decide on the right light fixtures for the home, you'll have to choose.
Speaker A:You go into a store, it used to be simple.
Speaker A:You go to the, the aisle where light bulbs were and you picked 40 watt, 60 watt 100.
Speaker A:Now it's much more complicated than that, as I'm sure you've noticed.
Speaker A:And so maybe it's just my age, but it's a lot harder than it used to be.
Speaker A:So what is LED lighting?
Speaker A:Let's start there.
Speaker A:LED stands for light emitting diode.
Speaker A:When voltage is applied to the two leads, electrons move around and create light or electroluminescence.
Speaker A:By comparison, an incandescent bulb lights up when the internal filament is heated.
Speaker A:A CFL bulb glows when an or the fluorescent CFL glows when an electrical Current runs through the gases in the tube.
Speaker A:There are numerous LED lighting fixtures, so you can find plenty of styles for every room in your house, from pendant lights to the kitchen to outdoor wall lights and so forth on the deck.
Speaker A:Many advantages, both stylish and very energy efficient.
Speaker A:So here is the pros.
Speaker A:In other words, the good aspects of LED bulbs.
Speaker A:What are the advantages?
Speaker A:There are numerous advantages to consider.
Speaker A:First of all, one of them, they last up to 50,000 hours.
Speaker A:Now, you'd have to calculate how much you have it on during a day.
Speaker A:Let's say it's an extreme situation like an office setting where you would have maybe the light on for 10 hours a day.
Speaker A:Even that might be even big.
Speaker A:Let's say you have it on 10 hours a day for, and it lasts 50,000 hours.
Speaker A:If it does what it says it's going to do, that would be 5,000 days.
Speaker A:Or broken down into you roughly work 250 days a year.
Speaker A:My quick math is that 20 years, it's a long time.
Speaker A:All right, for one bulb.
Speaker A:And so that's the advantage.
Speaker A:They last a long time.
Speaker A:This is significantly longer than both incandescent bulbs and CFLs.
Speaker A:These LED lights greatly reduce the need to purchase and install replacements.
Speaker A:It makes LED recessed lights and chandeliers or pendant lights a brilliant choice.
Speaker A:Think of those hard to reach places where you've had bulbs in the past.
Speaker A:You got a chandelier 20ft in the air and a bulb goes out.
Speaker A:How in the world do you, you know, get to that?
Speaker A:Well, if the led, you probably won't have to.
Speaker A:So something to consider.
Speaker A:They are also energy efficient.
Speaker A:They use six times less energy than incandescent bulbs.
Speaker A:Think of that.
Speaker A:Six times 600% less energy than incandescent bulbs.
Speaker A:This means that LED provides you with a significant savings on your electric bill.
Speaker A:Some local and state governments even offer rebates or other incentives to go to LED lights.
Speaker A:So here's another benefit.
Speaker A:LEDs are often compared to their energy efficient cousins, the CFLs or compact fluorescent lights.
Speaker A:LEDs, however, unlike CFLs, don't contain mercury.
Speaker A:If an LED light breaks, you don't have to be concerned about a difficult or dangerous cleanup process.
Speaker A:And that's the thing with CFLs.
Speaker A:Not necessarily the older type fluorescent, but the compact fluorescent had gases in them.
Speaker A:And one of them, mercury.
Speaker A:Well, everybody knows the danger of mercury.
Speaker A:You don't want it in your, your fillings, in your teeth, and you don't want it in your light bulbs.
Speaker A:Certainly you don't want it breaking.
Speaker A:So fixtures with LED bulbs don't require any, quote, warm up time.
Speaker A:I know that you're frustrated with CFLs and how long it takes them to warm up.
Speaker A:You turn it on, it's like this thing even working anymore and it just takes a while to get there.
Speaker A:LEDs are instant.
Speaker A:This eliminates the time needed to reach full brightness.
Speaker A:And there's several colors that can be emitted with LED bulbs.
Speaker A:I think that's maybe one of the biggest advantages.
Speaker A:You get bulbs put in your maybe front porch.
Speaker A:You can change them seasonally by the click of a remote control or put them around the crown molding in a room to create ambiance in a dining setting or bedroom or whatever.
Speaker A:So all kinds of advantages for LED lighting.
Speaker A:Well, what's a disadvantage of LED bulbs?
Speaker A:Well, there's, there's a few of those.
Speaker A:Number one is the initial high cost per bulb, and that is significant.
Speaker A:It costs a lot more up front to put in an LED than it would an incandescent bulb.
Speaker A:But as I mentioned, the energy savings are over six times what you would get on an incandescent bulb and they last much longer.
Speaker A:So over time it's actually cheaper.
Speaker A:The initial cost is a lot.
Speaker A:So if you're thinking of a corporation, a school system, and you're replacing the bulbs, that's a huge initial cost.
Speaker A:But over time it saves you if you can deal with the upfront cost.
Speaker A:Bulbs from various manufacturers appear noticeably different in terms of their white light hues.
Speaker A:So choose a well known brand.
Speaker A:That's the thing, you can put two side by side.
Speaker A:One looks much whiter than the other.
Speaker A:And so incandescent bulbs, toward the end of when those were popular, they had some of the same things.
Speaker A:You know, you had real, you know, natural light or you had white light or whatever.
Speaker A:A little bit of the same with LED bulbs.
Speaker A:You just need to get them from the same place and from a well known manufacturer.
Speaker A:So that can be a disadvantage.
Speaker A:Most white LED bulbs emit a cooler blue tinted light rather than the quote, warmer glow associated with incandescent.
Speaker A:I'm wearing these blue blocker glasses.
Speaker A:Folks recommend that it's basically like a computer screen on constantly.
Speaker A:There have been studies done that indicate it can hurt your vision being constantly exposed to LED lighting.
Speaker A:So that's just something that you have to look into, research and decide what's right for your household.
Speaker A:Maybe you don't use bulbs that often.
Speaker A:Maybe you have them on during the day to help with light and at night you don't have them on at all.
Speaker A:And so it doesn't affect you as Much you don't have that stark contrast.
Speaker A:Some people prefer daylight or natural light LED options.
Speaker A:Another disadvantage, LEDs can create sharp shadows.
Speaker A:And another disadvantage is they are not all dimmable.
Speaker A:Think of an incandescent light.
Speaker A:You have a dimmer Switch.
Speaker A:Well, the LEDs don't necessarily work with regular dimmer switches.
Speaker A:You have to get specific dimmer switches which obviously cost more if you want that type of situation, but especially I would think, if you put them in a bathroom.
Speaker A:Think about if you get up in the morning, it's dark and you turn on that LED light and there's one mode and, and that's like the face of the sun.
Speaker A:You'll be shocked into waking up.
Speaker A:Might not want that.
Speaker A:Could put you in a bad mood.
Speaker A:So get a specific dimmer switch that goes with led.
Speaker A:Have it set to a lower light so when you flip it on in the morning, it doesn't, you know, jolt you back a few feet.
Speaker A:But if that's what you want to do.
Speaker A:So check the bulbs packaging carefully if you want adjustable lighting.
Speaker A:So if you know that it needs a special dimmer switch or is not dimmable at all.
Speaker A:So are LED fixtures right for your home?
Speaker A:Certain areas of your home may benefit more from LED lighting than others, depending on their use and convenience.
Speaker A:Areas where changing bulbs is difficult.
Speaker A:We talked about a chandelier 20ft in the air or on trim at the ceiling level.
Speaker A:LEDs are great candidates.
Speaker A:It's up, it's out of the way, it's going to provide ambient lighting.
Speaker A:You never have to worry about it.
Speaker A:I mean, 20, 30, 50,000 hours of use.
Speaker A:That's incredible how that can last.
Speaker A:Areas where the quality of light or the tint isn't as important, such as outdoor areas, also can benefit from LED fixtures.
Speaker A:When you're looking into LEDs, you should consider certain performance aspects, including lumens and color rendering index.
Speaker A:In other words, what light it's putting out and what color it's putting out.
Speaker A:The number of lumens refers to the amount of light output or brightness.
Speaker A: are LED flashlights and have: Speaker A:And I used to have one that had 10,000 lumens on search mode, which was awesome until I left it at a house and lost it.
Speaker A:So that was a sad day.
Speaker A:But anyways, the CRI describes the quality of light compared to a familiar reference such as daylight.
Speaker A:So the best LED light bulbs have a high lumen count and a CRI of at least 90.
Speaker A:So if you're looking at an LED, the most natural looking light is what?
Speaker A:Or the higher the number it's more closer to a natural looking light.
Speaker A:So you want something that has at least 90 on it.
Speaker A:So if you're looking for a number associated with LED light bulbs, so once you enjoy or once you've installed your LED lights, you can enjoy them.
Speaker A:You know, if it's too harsh for you, if you want something different, you may have to go back to an incandescent or even a CFL or put a shield on it or something about that.
Speaker A:So some some some great things to think about when outfitting your home or business with led.
Speaker A:Long term savings, high upfront cost all factors to consider when making this decision.
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Speaker A:Have a great day everyone.
Speaker A:Thank you for listening this week.
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