With rising energy costs and a general wish to consume less energy, many homeowners are deciding to install LED recessed lighting. LED recessed fixtures have reached a point in the marketplace where the cost-performance  ratio makes them a viable replacement for older incandescents.

Why choose LED for recessed lighting?  What are some of the differences from traditional incandescent that make LED worth considering?

LED, when performing correctly, uses roughly 25% of the energy of incandescent sources.  This not only leads to energy savings, but fewer watts equates to less heat in the lit spaces.  LED will produce a quarter of the heat of incandescent, and even that small amount of heat is filtered up through the top of the recessed fixture, rather than projected downward like a flood lamp in an incandescent fixture.

Today’s LEDs are reliable and rated operating life can exceed fifteen years.  Imagine not having to get up on a ladder and change a light bulb until your toddlers go off to college!  If you tire of bulb-changing, the investment of LED recessed lighting may appeal to you.

In the not-so-distant past, people have been turned away by the harsh, blue light of LED.  It is now common to find affordable, bright, color-true LEDs in a variety of recessed trim styles and sizes.

Homeowners with existing recessed fixtures may be unable/unwilling to tear open their ceilings to install an entirely new LED system.  Thankfully, many manufacturers supply ‘retrofit’ canisters that replace older incandescent trims, and utilize the existing recessed housings.  Replacing a trim takes only minutes, and there are styles available for less than $100.  If you factor the energy and bulb cost over 15 years for the old light, the money doesn’t seem so daunting.

Even if you are reluctant to change an old fixture, you can still pick up a reliable LED flood bulb for around $30 that will give you the same brightness as incandescent, yet last up to 50 times as long.

Whether new construction, retrofit trim or replacement bulb, you will find many choices of recessed lighting that will bring you energy savings, lower heat and extremely long life- all with a light quality that will please even the most discerning eye.

Since we look at lighting all day, we are not easily impressed with new LED offerings from our manufacturers.  Puck lights, undercabinet fixtures and LED tape lighting ( like rope lighting, but flatter!) need to give off bright, flattering illumination in order for the staff to take notice.  Everybody makes LED, but very few companies’ offerings produce high-quality light at a price that isn’t offensive.

Because of the aforementioned reasons, I was reluctant to take a look Diode LED, yet another company promising the moon.

Turns out, I was very impressed.

Orinda, California’s Diode LED (Pixar’s next door neighbor) started making LED lights for high end vehicles such as Lexus and Infiniti.  Their engineers are no strangers to crisp, white light that can be easily dimmed.  Due to customer demand, the folks at Diode have produced puck lights, tape light (dry and damp location) and low-profile undercabinet bars that are brighter than halogen but use a fraction of the energy.

While most companies emphasize the quality of the LED chip in the production of fixtures, Diode uses high-quality drivers as well.  Drivers are what regulate the voltage to the LED chips and are usually the weakest link in the installation.  Diode’s drivers are affordable but promise to be more reliable than many brands’.

We invite you to stop into our St Paul showroom where one of our lighting consultants can show you the Diode LED display.  We believe you’ll be as impressed as we are!

Refract Undercabinet LightBar

LED Desk Lamp

Great New LED task and desk lamps have just arrived at Creative Lighting! A simple design, a great price, and a superior color LED make these a great way to be part of the LED revolution!

Compared to fluorescent bulbs, advantages claimed for LED light bulbs are that they do not contain mercury (unlike compact fluorescent light bulbs), that they turn on instantly, and that the lifetime is unaffected by cycling on and off, so that they are well suited for light fixtures where the bulbs are frequently turned on and off. LED light bulbs are also less apt to break.

LED Floor Lamp

LED lamps have no glass tubes to break, and their internal parts are rigidly supported, making them resistant to vibration and impact. A LED light bulb can be expected to last 25–30 years under normal use. The bulbs maintain output light intensity very well over their life-times.  Creative Lighting has great prices for our LED Desk Lamp: $99.90, and our LED Floor Lamp: $129.90 (both available in Chrome or Black).  Plus, if you come in right now, you can save 10% off all our LED lamps with this coupon.

This 10-watt fixture produces more light than a 54-watt xenon

Undercabinet lighting has come a long way since the days of flickering T12 (fat) fluorescent tubes. While these are still fine for laundry rooms and ‘man-cave’ workbenches, they don’t do much to flatter the high-end countertops and custom cabinetry that today’s homeowner demands.

For over twenty years, customers have had the option of using color-true halogen undercabinet lighting. Halogens will make granite dance, but will also produce so much heat as to ruin spices and even warp cabinets if used for many years. Xenon has all but replaced halogen as the go-to undercabinet lighting choice, but even xenon still produces a fair amount of heat (25% less heat than halogen).

LED (Light-Emitting Diode) technology seems to be a perfect fit for undercabinet applications. Long-life, energy-efficiency, and very low heat output seem to crown it the new king of undercabinet lighting.  The very thought of kitchen lights that last for 18 years of average use may make you want to rip your current system out of the wall.

Is it really that simple?  As of July, 2010, I can confidently tell you, yes.  Even folks’ main objections to LED- high initial cost and light quality- are much less of an issue today.

For instance, a high-quality low-voltage 22 inch xenon undercabinet fixture will run about $110, whereas a middle-range non-dimmable LED fixture with acceptable light quality will only be 40-50 dollars more.  You can certainly find higher-end LED fixtures with even higher color rendering and light output for a much higher cost, but I believe there are currently enough reliable LED choices in a reasonable price range to recommend over xenon lighting.

When considering an LED system for your undercabinet lighting, make sure it is from a reputable brand, offers at least a three-year warranty, and is purchased from a retailer that will be able to answer any questions you may have.

Most importantly, purchase a (returnable, of course) plug-in version of one or two brands of LED you are likely to choose so you can take them home and decide for yourself if the brightness and light quality meet your expectations.  Unlike xenon, LED brightness and color vary greatly from one company to the next, even in higher-end products.  Only after this test should you buy a whole kitchen’s-worth of LED undercabinet lighting.

There are myriad options for LED undercabinet lighting, and the staff of Creative Lighting would like to help you make the selection as smooth as possible.  A bright, cool, energy-efficient kitchen is just around the corner!

The most common question I get asked regarding LED lighting is, “Can I replace my lightbulbs with LEDs ?’  This is a simple question, but requires a bit of a long-winded response.  The short answer is, Yes- LED light bulbs are ready for your home.  However, the cost of top-quality LED light bulbs that mimic incandescent bulbs can be upwards of $100 each. 

Yikes!

True, one can stroll down the aisle of a big-box store and find LED light bulbs for as little as $15.  These bulbs are disappointing to say the least.  If you are happy with dim, bluish light from dicey manufacturers, then these bulbs will meet your expectations.  If what you are after is crisp, white, pleasing, bright illumination, then you’ll either have to shell out the cash or wait for the next generation of LED bulbs.  This next generation of bulbs promises to bring great leaps in performance, quality and design.

Philips’ EnduraLED light bulb may just be the catalyst that the LED industry has been looking for.  Using just 12 watts, this bulb has been specifically designed to give consumers an alternate to the traditional 60-watt light bulb.  This new LED bulb will give off the same true light as the old heaters, while using 80 percent less energy and lasting 25 times as long.  Once rigorous testing is complete, we could see this bulb on store shelves as soon as the end of 2010.  Pricing has not been determined, but expect it to be much more affordable than today’s lower-performing options.

If you are an early-adopter of new technologies (i.e., you are reading this blog on your iPad), then go ahead and replace your home’s bulbs with today’s LED offerings.  If you are like me, wait a year or so until the first real knock-your-socks-off versions are rolled out.

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