Conventional incandescent light bulbs, which includes halogen bulbs, turn barely more than 10% of their energy input into visible light. They function by heating a metal filament to almost melting point and most of the input energy is, as you might expect, wasted in the form of heat. It would therefore be understating things somewhat to describe them as not exactly efficient at doing the very thing they are supposed to do
If you wanted a diminutive heater then conventional light bulbs are quite effective, though of course the heat they generate is usually dissipated somewhere unhelpful such as the ceiling and much of the time all they achieve is making the air conditioning work harder. The simple truth is that you are shelling out good money for heat you don’t want and getting very little actual light in return.
What are termed “low energy” or “energy saving” lights have been on the market for a few years. Most mostly in the form of compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) which even today are still the most common kind of energy saving bulb offered to domestic customers. However, CFLs have hardly been a runaway success, due in the main to factors such as being oversized, taking a long time to attain optimum brightness and their cost. There have been improvements to make CFLs more discrete, attain optimum brightness quicker, and cost less but there is no escaping their tarnished image or the fact that they contain toxic mercury vapour and are problematic when it comes to disposing of them in an environmentally aware way.
The latest breed of energy efficient lighting uses the technology of light emitting diodes (LED). LED light is orders of magnitude more energy saving than existing CFLs but until very recently has not been quite up to the levels needed for general domestic lighting.
However LED bulbs recently appearing in the market are indeed viable as genuine alternatives, and in particular the ones intended as substitutes for GU10 and MR16 halogen lamps. But anyone contemplating going down this route should also know that many white LED bulbs, and in particular ones described as “cool” as distinct from “warm” white) can appear slightly blue which some folk find quite attractive but which generally do tend to stand out rather if used with other kinds of lighting.
Undoubtedly though, the main benefit of LED light bulbs is their ability to they convert ninety percent of the energy consumed directly into light while wasting practically none of that precious energy as heat which means that they need a lot less energy to operate them. Around ten times less which in terms of cost savings is massive for the simple reason that the cost of electric lighting is nearly all about the running cost. The cost of the light bulbs themselves is simply trivial by comparison.
It’s also a fact that LED lights last twenty or more times longer and thus require replacing much less frequently. The advantages should be fairly clear then; LED lights not only save you money, they also help the environment. The manufacturing process is more straightforward than for CFL bulbs and there are no unpleasant disposal headaches.
There is little doubt thought that the biggest benefit for the environment stems from the fact that because LED lights consume less electricity then less electricity has to be produced which in turn means lower CO2 emissions.
If you would like to learn more then review this article about 12v LEDs.
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