How To Choose LED Lights? Leave a comment

Do you sometimes feel confused when standing in front of the shelves of LED lights? Yes, compared to traditional lights, LED lights offer much more options. However, this makes their selection somewhat more difficult. So how do you choose an LED bulb or LED light? Here, MASTERLIGHT shares useful advice that you should consider when buying LED lighting and what mistakes to avoid.

1. Buy lumens (lm), not watts (W)

We have long been used to buying lighting by W (watts). In the case of LED lighting, the most important thing would be to see how many lumens (lm, or light intensity) the LED light provides at a certain power consumption (W). Luminaires with different cover glass and different light shades, including LED bulbs, give a different number of lumens with the same power consumption (W). Every year, the lights become more and more energy-efficient (more efficient), but since different LED bulbs and lights are designed for a certain purpose, the number of lumens remains more or less the same. Therefore, it is misleading to buy according to W, because perhaps a bulb with the amount of light you want is available with a lower W cost.

2. What affects the price?

Several factors affect the price:

✓covering material (glass or plastic)

✓other used materials and electronic components

✓expected life of the product – as a rule, the cheaper the product, the more often they need to be replaced.
✓dimmability – the possibility of dimming makes the product more expensive.  On the other hand, the ability to adjust the amount of light and the resulting electricity savings and a pleasant lighting level are added.

✓ build quality – you can’t see inside the product, but low build quality is usually betrayed by plain packaging and a poor-looking product.

3. Who is Kelvin? What light tone to choose?

You must have noticed that LED lights have a fairly wide range of light shades/tones/temperatures that is indicated in Kelvins (K). Where then what should be chosen? You could know so much about light tones that warmer tones bring out warmer tones in the home (for example, a red sofa). 

Neutral (4000-4500K) is well suited to modern and fresh-looking rooms, as warm tones leave a yellowish tint.
You could choose 4000K-5000K for the office, the workplace, as these tones favor a person’s staying alert and increase productivity.
For home general lighting 3000K is the most preferred. However 4000K and 2700K are not wrong either and depends on personal preference.
3000K or 4000K for the bathroom, kitchen.
2700K-2200K are also suitable for the bedroom, living room, because the warmer the tone, the nicer we look, and it is most pleasant to be in this light.

4. Why are Ra, CRI indicators important?
CRI and Ra are color separation indices, i.e. they show how well the light can highlight different colors of the color spectrum on a scale of 1-100. The CRI methodology is more accurate, therefore also more reliable.
At the moment, the vast majority of lights have a CRI of 80-90, which is generally sufficient. For outdoor lighting, CRI can be 70-80. A CRI above 90 is considered high, or very good, which is recommended for use in museums, art galleries, stores and other places where true-to-life colors are especially important.
The LED world is moving towards the ideal color separation index every year, to achieve a color separation index of 100, as was the case with incandescent and halogen bulbs.

In the MASTERLIGHT product range, you can also find products with a high CRI, for example: