How to Choose an LED Light Bulb for Your [city] Home

Once dismissed for being too expensive and for having lighting quality issues, today’s crop of LED light bulbs finally give off great light and boast of unique features (Wi-Fi connectivity among others), all while being more affordable than ever.

For the average [city] consumer, LEDs offer several obvious benefits: they’re highly energy efficient, long-lasting (with a lifespan of more than 20 years), and come in a wide range of colors and color temperatures. But with so many different kinds of LED light bulbs from various lighting manufacturers out there, how exactly do you choose the right LED for your [city] home?

Below are some important factors to consider when choosing an LED.

Lighting Quality – Color and Color Temperature

For decades, consumers have measured the brightness of a light bulb using wattage—the more watts, the brighter. That’s quickly changing, as LED bulbs, which use up to 90% less energy than incandescents, can generate the same brightness of a 100-watt classic light bulb for just to 10 to 15 watts of electricity. What you should be looking for when shopping for LEDs is the lumens rating—a lumen is the measure of an artificial light’s brightness.

Once you’ve decided on the brightness of your LED bulb, you then need to think of color and color temperature. A unique feature of LEDs is how they can be modified to generate virtually any kind of color, opening a plethora of possibilities for lighting applications. As for color temperature, you should think ahead of the kind of light you want from your LEDs. Do you want a warm, yellowish color, or do you a whitish kind of light similar to regular daylight?

Functionality – Efficiency and Lifespan

Many light bulbs come in odd shapes that turn people off. More often than not, the reason for the odd profile of an LED is its heat sink, which is designed to cool the light-producing semiconductors inside the bulb. If appearances are important to you, buy an LED that closely resembles the classic light bulb.

One of the biggest benefits of LEDs is their long life, with some bulbs having a rated lifespan of 25,000+ hours—more than 20 years provided they are used for an average of 8 hours a day. This long life also makes an LED the perfect lighting solution for hard-to-reach whose lights you want to avoid replacing.

Price

Although many LED light bulbs fetch a higher initial cost, they eventually pay for themselves over the long run thanks to the energy savings they offer. When placed alongside incandescents, halogens, and even compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), LEDs use the least amount of electricity, translating to savings from a lower utility bill.

Industry experts have set the price benchmark for widespread adoption of LEDs at $10. Things seem to be headed that way, although some bulbs, like the Philips Hue LED light bulbs, still command a significantly high price. If price is important, choose the most affordable LED from a reliable manufacturer.