LED Lighting: Lights for a bright and efficient home

With the summer now gone and winter approaching the evenings are getting darker earlier and for longer. This means we are turning on our lights more and so using more energy to light our homes. This is a good time to review what type of lighting you have in the home and see if there are any opportunities for you to fit more efficient lighting and save on your electricity bills.

According to the Energy Saving Trust, Lighting accounts for 18% of a typical household’s electricity use.  Here our Energy Advisor Brian will explain LED (Light Emitting Diodes) lighting and how fitting them can reduce your electricity bills.

So what is LED lighting?

According to the leading independent product testers, Which, LED lights are now being seen as the future of home lighting as they use very little energy, claim to last a very long time and, unlike regular energy-saving bulbs, are instantly bright when switched on. Traditional incandescent bulbs produce and waste lots of heat and therefore use a lot more power than the more efficient LED bulbs available today.

LEDs are now available in all shapes and sizes and are particularly good for replacing high energy halogen spotlights and dimmable lights. Though more expensive to buy initially, they are even more efficient than CFLs and will save you more money in the long term.

Advantages of LED Lighting

LES’s are more expensive than traditional bulbs but they have many advantages over traditional bulbs, some of which are:

• They are the most efficient lighting on the market and use up to 90% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs which means savings are made very quickly;
• They can last up to 20 years under typical operating hours which means not having to change the bulbs for a long time;
• They give out light instantly when you flick the switch on, unlike ordinary energy saving bulbs which take time to heat up.

Savings you can make

The table below shows the yearly savings you can make by replacing a halogen spotlight with an LED spotlight (based on 5hours per day average use):

You can save around 90% on the cost of running a halogen bulb. So if the bulb cost £4.50 (the price of a spotlight in our High Street Hub), it would pay for itself within 6 months.

Changing your old bulbs, what to look for

The best strategy when replacing bulbs is to first replace the lights that you use the most in the house as this is where you will make most of the savings. Both the Energy Savings Trust and Which? have lots of information, tips and advice on what to look for when replacing old bulbs with more efficient bulbs.

Greener Kirkcaldy can help

You can buy LEDs from our High Street Hub AND if you bring your old traditional bulbs in with you, we’ll give you 10% off the price of the new ones as part of our LED Amnesty.

You could also save energy through our Cosy Kingdom service which offers free and impartial home energy advice. One of our energy advisors can come to your home and give you one to one help and advice. For more information or to arrange a free home visit get in touch by calling 01592 858458, emailing info@greenerkirkcaldy.org.uk or pop into our High Street Hub, 254a High Street, for a chat Wednesday to Saturday, 10am-4pm.