With most of us being on an energy-saving mission to reduce the impact we have on the environment as well as our household running costs, it can be difficult to know what to do in order to save electricity. A lot of people are debating whether the better option is halogen or spot LED lighting. There’s been a lot of speculation between the two, some saying LED lightening is too expensive to purchase initially, others saying that halogen bulbs cost too much to run and give off too much heat. So which one is better? Let’s discuss the differences below.
To work out which bulb is best for your home and most cost-effective, taking into account running and upfront costs, I’ve compared hologen bulbs with LED bulbs. For this test, I’ll compare 2 spotlight versions of halogen and LED. A GU10 5 LED lamp and a GU10 50 Watt Halogen.
Spot LED lighting is the more expensive purchase, it usually costs about double the price of a halogen light bulb. The power a LED light bulb we’re comparing is 10 times lower than the power of the halogen bulb. However, LED bulbs have a lifespan of over 25,000 hours, while halogen bulbs a lifespan of around 1,500 hours only.
More importantly, the Kwh of electricity used over the span of 25,000 hours and the cost of running is by far in favour of the LED bulbs, with the Kwh of electricity used by the halogens being at around 1,250 while the LED only uses 125 – 10 times less. Therefore, the LED light bulb running costs are also 10 times lower.
When you compare the amount of halogen lights needed to last as much as 1 LED light, it’s no less than 17, which when put all together, costs far more than the initial purchase of a LED bulb (about 8 times more). And when you collect the buying and running costs for 25,000 hours, you get a clear winner – the LED bulbs.
The benefits of LED light fittings don’t stop at their cost and efficiency. They brighten up instantly and are not affected by their frequent off and on switching. Additionally, they produce a focused beam of light making them extremely suitable in a wide variety of applications such as display cabinets, spot lights and garden features. They are durable and compact which makes them suitable for both outdoor and indoor lighting and they’re very precisely controllable allowing for a dynamic control of colour, light intensity and distribution.