LED lighting in our kitchen areas

Reasons why we should start using light bulbs or 

LED lighting in our kitchen areas

ü Energy efficiency (lumens/watt) – 50% savings over fluorescent, 90% over halogen or incandescent today and improving rapidly. This translates into energy cost savings.

ü  Longer bulb life – e.g. halogen 1,500 hours to LED 30,000‐50,000 hours, which also equates to a lower maintenance cost in commercial/industrial environments.

ü  LED bulb costs coming down whilst energy costs are going up.

ü  Many LED bulbs are dimmable, unlike fluorescents.

ü  Colour temperature – LEDs available in a range of ‘warm’ to ‘cold’ light versions as well as a range of colours for specialist uses (e.g. night lighting of Millennium Bridge in York).

ü  Flexibility– not only available in bulbs but bendable strips and sheets, range of beam angles, fitting types, frosted vs unfrosted, etc.

ü  Excellent for off‐grid installations – because (a) limited power is available and the cost per watt of energy delivered is high, and (b) LED is widely available in 12V DC.

ü  No start‐up delay when switching on, unlike many fluorescents.

ü  Works better in cold environments than fluorescents.

ü  Less heat output than other technologies – especially important in hot climates, in refrigeration lighting, and to reduce electrical fire danger.

The bulbs must be made specifically to be regulated, in order to be able to function properly with alternating energy, otherwise they would blink and melt. While the LED bulbs that work with energy continue can be regulated without any problem or flicker.

The bulbs that work by means of alternating energy, produce that flicker since normally the electric wave of this type of energy always oscillates between the negative pole and the positive pole, but so quickly that the human eye does not perceive this fluctuation.

The problem occurs when we lengthen this wavelength, something that occurs when we lower the intensity of light, then the change from the negative pole to the positive happens more slowly and becomes perceptible to our eyes.