Confused About LED Light Bulbs?
Here are are some answers
Green Faith Committee member and IUCC resident expert on light bulbs Alex Ingal has answers to all your LED light bulb questions. Here's what he wants everyone to know.
Hello everyone! Did you remember to celebrate Earth Day? Forgot? Well at least you are using LEDs to light up your house, but have you noticed that your rooms are dimmer? It is not your imagination but the facts of LED bulbs.
Many of us have been raised using incandescent bulbs and only switched to LED bulbs in the last 20 years. Yet most of us don’t understand a thing on the box when we buy them. There are so many choices today, so which one is best for you? Well after reading this lightbulb guide, you will be a pro!
Putting it all together
So where do you find all this information on the packaging? Well, they list it like the food labels you don’t read. So let’s look at the first box I found on Amazon and interpret what you would be getting.
Looking at the first image from Great Eagle via Amazon, 25,000 hours life, replaces 60W, Daylight! Sounds amazing! Well of course it does! It is just like seeing fat free on the front of your butter. But does that really make it good? Well let’s look at the second label.
830 lumens. This means this bulb is not as bright as a 60W bulb would be. 22.8 years based off 3 hours a day. Looking back, in about 3 years, this bulb will be dimmer than a 40W incandescent bulb. Speaking of 3 years, the bulb has a 3-year warranty. Huh, it is as if they know the bulb will be much dimmer past 3 years.
Back to the first image. 220 beam angle. Remember, 210 is the minimum I suggest for a lamp so this will technically work for a lamp, but this is a bit excessive for a ceiling light. Then this is the daylight (5000K) model so it isn’t recommended for a lamp, unless your favorite reading spot at night time is in the sun (try to figure out how that would work).
This is a good, solid light bulb for those trying to be economical, but it isn’t a quality bulb. Remember, I just picked a light bulb at random and am in no way trying to recommend one bulb over another but just showing how to determine if the bulb is right for you.
