In this video we'll take a quick look at LED bulbs in comparison with incandescent and CFL bulbs. All rated at 2700 kelvin so they're designed to have a similar look. 2700k or kelvin is the warm looking color many of us are familiar with from our historic use of incandescent light bulbs. When incandescent bulbs were first being replaced for energy efficiency purposes, this was mainly done with CFL bulbs.
Unfortunately, many people didn't like the look of CFLs, although these bulbs have improved over the years. CFLs take a little time to reach full brightness. They don't work well in cold temperatures and they contain a little bit of mercury, which is a known toxic element, so you need to be careful about the cleanup process if one breaks.
CFLs also usually don't dim and when they do, they generally don't dim as well as traditional light bulbs. We'll compare dimming in just a moment. Also, while they were originally rated to last around 10,000 hours, many people found that CFLs really didn't last that long because they were being used in settings where they were turned on and off frequently, the way you would with incandescent bulbs.
Picture, for instance, their use in closets or bathrooms. Short. on-off cycles are known to reduce the life of CFLs.
So now many labels will show them as having life spans of 6,000 to 8,000 hours. Still this is compared to a rated life of just 1,000 hours for incandescent bulbs. LED bulbs however are different.
They can be turned on and off frequently without shortening their lifespan. In fact since that process does impact the filament of an incandescent LEDs may handle this even better. LEDs are also more robust since they don't have a delicate filament or an outer envelope made of glass. They operate well in cold weather and although you need to verify this on a label, most LED bulbs dim. They tend to dim smoothly but may not dim as much as an incandescent.
Still, improvements on this front are continually being made. While it's difficult to show in this video due to camera limitations, The LED actually appears to be the brightest of these because it provides directional lighting, sending its light in the direction needed rather than in all directions. And here you can see the three bulbs being dimmed. Again, it doesn't render well here, but the incandescent bulb dims all the way, which you can easily see. On this particular dimmer, this CFL dims a little and the LED dims about halfway.
Now take a look at how these three bulbs render colors. As you can see in this example, the incandescent bulb does a nice job of pulling out more reds, but the LED provides more vivid blues and greens. The CFL provides the most faded colors overall. This shows you why today's scale of the Color Rendering Index, or CRI, which gives almost a perfect rating to incandescents and only a good rating to both CFLs and LEDs, may not tell you the whole story about how well a particular lamp renders colors. We've found that LEDs render colors very nicely even compared to incandescent bulbs, just differently.
As you can see, LEDs do a nice job of replicating the look of an incandescent bulb without the downsides of a CFL, with many rated to last 25,000 hours and using one-sixth the energy of an incandescent or less. LEDs are by far the most cost-effective light bulbs available today. If you're in need of LED bulbs, We encourage you to stop by our selection. We carry trusted brands so you can better rely on color consistency and longevity of light output. And we bring you these top brands at some of the best prices around.
Check out all our LEDs at LightingSupply.com forward slash LED.