Lighting Trends

The benefits of LED lighting in your home or office are being heralded everywhere – the local papers, magazines, blogs, websites, and just recently in the New York Times – see our post on facebook.com/angersteins.  So, what are you waiting for? Now is the time. And here are the reasons why you should start changing out your inefficient lighting for the rightfully popular LED.

1.)   Long-lasting – LED bulbs last up to 10 times as long as compact fluorescents, and far longer than typical incandescent bulbs.

2.)   Durable – since LEDs do not have a filament, they are not damaged under circumstances when a regular incandescent bulb would be broken. Because they are solid, LED bulbs hold up well to jarring and bumping.

3.)   Cool – these bulbs do not cause heat build-up; LEDs produce 3.4 btu’s/hour, compared to 85 for incandescent bulbs. Common incandescent bulbs get hot and contribute to heat build-up in a room. LEDs prevent this heat build-up, thereby helping to reduce air conditioning costs in the home.

4.)   Mercury-Free – no mercury is used in the manufacturing of LEDs

5.)   More efficient – LED light bulbs use only 2-17 watts of electricity – that is 1/3rd to 1/30th of what an incandescent or CFL bulb uses. LED bulbs save electricity, remain cool and save money on replacement costs since LED bulbs last so long.

6.)   Low maintenance – since LED last so long, there is no climbing on ladders to constantly change bulbs

7.)   Cost-effective – although LEDs are initially expensive, the cost is recouped over time and in energy savings. The cost of LED bulbs has gone down considerably in the last few years, and is continuing to go down. Today, there are many new LED light bulbs for use in the home, and the cost is becoming less of an issue.

At Angerstein’s Lighting we see these benefits helping our customers every day. At local clothing and shoe boutique, Peter Kate, they had problems with the halogen bulbs giving off so much heat that they had to keep their doors open – even in the winter months. Replacing the very hot and inefficient halogen lamps with LEDs made the store much more comfortable. Sandy Conley, manager of Angerstein’s Design Center, often works with local churches, such as Limestone Presbyterian, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd and St John’s Episcopal, to replace their inefficient lighting in the naves and sanctuaries. Lowering their energy costs allows them to give more to their community outreach programs. Brenda Robinett, who at Angerstein’s works with many of the local landscape designers, has noticed a huge increase in the sales of LED landscape lights. “Landscape light bulbs go out quite frequently for many reasons – heat build-up, bad electrical connections causing shorts, lawnmowers hitting the lights continuously. With the prices of LED landscape light fixtures coming down, it is easier for us to sell the low-maintenance benefits to the customer.”