When beautiful, elegant landscaping graces your home, the last thing you want to do is keep it hidden in the dark. The best way to dramatically change the look of your home for the better is by accentuating your home’s most appealing features. From pathways to gorgeous gardens and pools to grand entrances, keeping your home lit up against the night sky enhances both its landscaping and architecture features.
However, if you are using incandescent bulbs to light up your landscape, your home may not look as fantastic as you wish. With a dull, yellowish glow, incandescent bulbs not only provide a less appealing light, but prove less cost efficient and less durable in comparison to LED bulbs. So if you’d like to save money on your electric bill, experience superior light quality, cause less impact on the environment, and change your bulbs every decade or two rather than every few months, it is time to upgrade your existing landscape lighting to LEDs.
Energy Output
LED stands for light-emitting diode, which basically means these types of bulbs differ from incandescent bulbs in terms of the light output compared with the heat produced. LED technology converts 95 percent of the energy to light, wasting only 5 percent as heat. Incandescent bulbs convert 10 percent of the energy to light, wasting 90 percent as heat.
Light Color
Because your landscape lighting is outdoors, you should opt for lighting that looks more natural. Incandescent bulbs cast a yellowish glow (warm white or soft white), which appears dingy in comparison to cooler, light colors. Cooler tones of light appear more natural because daylight is cool and bright. LED lights come in various colors, depending on their Correlated Color Temperature (CCT), which is the color of light emitted by a bulb in terms of a light appearance number. This number is often printed on packages of LED bulbs you buy, but the main thing to know is to buy bulbs that have a Color Rendering Index (CRI) number of 80 or higher for lighting of superior quality.
Cost Efficiency
LED bulbs cost more than standard incandescent bulbs, but the prices for LEDs have steadily decreased. However, LED bulbs last a long time in comparison to incandescents. Rather than simply burn out or suddenly stop working, LED bulbs decline over time, where the amount of light slowly decreases. Even so, LEDs last up to 40,000 hours of use – that’s 4.5 years of 24/7 use!
Get the latest and best lighting for your property by switching your landscape lighting to LED. To get started, give Illuminations USA a call today at 407-880-0700.