led skyltar

With the ever increasing choices available to online shoppers these days you might be confused or unsure as to what may be a wise choice in choosing your new LED investment.

With so many different options available such as lumens, wattage, beam angle, colour rendering etc. you may be thinking why can't I just pick my bulb from the wattage (watts) and be done with it, if only life could be so simple.

Well the good old folks of the EU have in their wisdom implemented a directive (2009/125/EC) which requires from September 2010 that all labelling of lighting be in terms of lumens instead of electrical watts.

You may be asking why have they done this, well good question, in simple terms Watt's is not a useful comparison in the brightness of an LED lamp compared to lumens.

The higher the lumens the brighter the lamp therefore always be mindful of the stated lumens output of any lamp you wish to purchase.

For example a wax candle has approximately 13 lumens of light; a 60 watt incandescent lamp has 720 lumens, the brighter the light source the higher the lumens.

With modern day LED technology we would be looking at 100 lumens per watt of power e.g. 4.5W LED = 450 lumens as compared to halogen type lamps which output around 12 lumens per watt of power.

The good news is YES, many new LED bulbs can just be replaced without any fuss at all, just find the correct bulb base, pick the lumens your require, the colour temp (e.g. warm white, pure white) and off you go. Now wasn't that easy - for now.

Check out some popular LED websites that led skyltar include a lamp picture menu, this makes it easier to select the correct fitting before your purchase.

Next choice - Dimmable or not?

As with your old bulbs LED lamps can also be dimmed BUT only if they state that on website/packaging.

You will most likely have to pay a slight premium for a dimmable version of the LED bulb you want as there are a few extra components needed to perform this function.

Another point to consider and a very important one is will I need a new dimmer switch or will my existing one suffice? The simple answer is - you won't know, chances are if your existing dimmer switch is a few years old it will not be compatible with your new dimmable LED bulb.

You will need a trailing edge dimmer switch to ensure the long life of your new investment, so my advice is if you're not sure don't chance it and buy a new LED dimmer switch.