3 things to look for when choosing LEDs
This spring I attended Light + Building in Frankfurt and Lightfair in San Diego and was awed by all the incredible sophistication and options LED technology has to offer.There was lighting to wake you up, set the mood for the day and get you energized. Lighting that adjusts to your circadian rhythm. Personalized lighting technologies that allow you to create your own individual lighting experiences. Incredibly exciting and I can spend (well, I do!) hours talking incessantly over dinner about the LED lighting revolution to poor friends and family. The problem is that most people don't care for this level of sophistication. They just want to switch to LED, but not make the process take too much of their time.
So, in a nutshell, what do you actually need to look for?
- Lumens: - The more lumens, the more light you get. (Rule of thumb: An LED that gives you about 1600 lumens is equivalent to a good old incandescent 100W bulb.) - CRI: - The higher the number, the more accurately the LED shows colors. (Match your socks perfectly!) - Color temperature: - the higher the number, the cooler the light. 2700K is what we are used to from an incandescent bulb. For residential lighting LEDs in the 2700K - 3000K range are most commonly used.
