When you browse the aisles of a hardware store, the price label on the LED bulbs professional christmas lights installation near me can give you a shock. Four dollars for a single bulb? The old incandescent was a lot less. But that price label only tells half of the story.
An LED bulb uses most of its power to create light. Incandescent bulbs waste roughly 90 percent of their electricity as heat, which is why they're so hot after you've left them on for an hour. LEDs run cool, and that difference shows up on your power bill month after month.
Think about a house with 25 fixtures. Replace all those bulbs with LED substitutes and lighting energy goes down by 70 to 80 percent. The kitchen and living room pay you back fastest, since the lights stay on for hours. But even the hall bathroom bulb you turn on twice a day will earn its keep eventually.
Lifespan counts just as much as the price. An average LED lasts anywhere from 15,000 to 50,000 hours. At four hours a day, that adds up to a decade or more before the bulb needs replacing. Say goodbye to the ladder and the monthly trip to change the single dead socket that resides directly above the stairs.
Well, here's a snag you should learn about. Cheap, unknown LEDs occasionally die prematurely thanks to faulty drivers, the small circuit boards inside the base. Stick with brands that list lumen output and color temperature and back their bulbs with a real warranty.
Dimmers deserve a quick mention too. Many LEDs do not work well with old dimmer switches, and that shows up as flickering or a buzzing sound. Check the packaging for "dimmable" and pair the bulb with a compatible dimmer switch.
Total it up over five years. There are fewer replacements to buy, less energy to pay for, and less heat for the air conditioning to remove in summer. The shelf price of that "high tech" little bulb is only a fraction of what the old kind costs you in the long run.