Following the death knoll for traditional 100W light bulbs and with their Government recommended replacement ‘energy saving versions’ still not liked or widely accepted as satisfactory substitutes by the general public, the case for replacing traditional incandescent  lighting with state of the art LED lighting systems, is much more compelling.

Consumers groups complain that the ‘new energy saving lamps’ on offer, are not popular for a number of reasons. First, is the initial high cost and the fact that they seem take too much time to reach their optimum brightness; even then, once they have finally reached their operating temperature, it is claimed that they are not as bright as the traditional bulbs that they are mandatorily replacing. Also, most of these lamps cannot be used with dimmers and still require specialist care when they need replacing, as they still contain toxins.

Dan Norris the Government Minister for the Environment, claims that although this directive is a European one, it is this British Government that has been leading Europe on the headlong rush to transform lighting in its bid to comply with energy saving.

Nevertheless, in an interview with the BBC, the RNIB said it was concerned about the move to low energy bulbs, as people did not know about the alternatives that were available for the partially sighted.
It said: "RNIB recognises that many blind and partially sighted people are concerned about the effectiveness of energy efficient light bulbs.
"However, for the vast majority of people it is possible to achieve the same lighting effect with new energy efficient bulbs available on the high street - the real issue is knowing what to get."

The RNIB recommends not replacing hallway and stair lights with new energy efficient bulbs, but suggests a tungsten halogen bulb instead, and advises people to look for bulbs recommended by the Energy Saving Trust for the rest of the house.

However, if the Government had proposed LED’s as their favoured alternative, there would be far more acceptability amongst consumers who would be keen to benefit from even lower energy costs, lit by lamps with zero mercury content (negating the need for special disposal), and giving the partially sighted and the rest of the UK population a far brighter, dimmable, cheaper and much more flexible source of energy saving lighting.

According to statistics obtained from the Energy Information Agency, the source for official energy statistics from the US government. If every home in America replaced just one of their most frequently used incandescent lamps with an LED light, they could reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 17.4 million metric tons of CO2 per year! That’s 3 times more carbon dioxide than Costa Rica gives off in whole year!

So the environmental case for adopting new LED lighting technology is obvious but what about the aesthetics?

Many critics of the current ‘energy saving’ alternatives complain about the aesthetics of the lamps, however, it must be said that the new generation of energy saving bulbs are far more attractive that there forbears that ‘did nothing to enhance the attractiveness of modern light fittings.

Although manufacturers of energy saving compact fluorescent lamps claim a life of up to six years, it has been reported that in general use their light output  has often dimmed to an unacceptable level within a couple of years use.

Alternatively, high brightness LED lamps keep on running at full output for up to TWENTY YEARS in average use!

WITH LED’S THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER
So far, it is believed that many people in the UK have refused to replace their old-fashioned light bulbs with energy efficient lamps because they simply don't like the light they produce. But the light from the latest, high efficiency LED lamps is a flicker-free, crisp clean white light, similar to that produced by a halogen light.  And unlike the new low energy fluorescent lamps, these new LED lamps give you the same instant-on performance of a regular light bulb.

Today’s new generation LED lighting systems use solid state technology and in most cases offer energy reductions of as much as 80%! They also last up to 15 times longer than incandescent lamps, which obviously translate into much lower maintenance, lower energy bills and replacement costs. Last benefit, but far from the least, is that with some new LED lighting systems; lighting engineers and lighting designers are able to design systems that can adapt the lighting ambience to suite any occasion, by changing the LED colour lighting combinations. This means that by offering a much more controllable lighting alternative to architects, interior designers and householders; whole rooms, buildings and even monuments can change colour at the push of a button.

Written by Gary Ashburner, MD of SH Lighting Ltd.

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