The lighting in your home is a great way of making eco-friendly and sustainable choices that impact the environment and reduce your energy bill.
Choosing lights can be a really fun experience, with varying styles and designs ready to go to match your home decor.
The light bulb within those lights is where you can make a real difference to your energy consumption, the good news is that there is lots of choice of lighting colours that can be included so versatility is not a problem.
The main two options are LED and Halogen lights, let’s look at the difference.
What is the difference between LED and halogen lights?
LED is an acronym that stands for Light Emitting Diodes. Simply put, this type of light bulb uses a diode rather than the old-fashioned method of a heated filament to produce light.
By contrast, halogen lights are a type of incandescent light bulb that uses halogen gas in order to generate light. The result is that these bulbs are much hotter than LED bulbs.
In Australia, many halogen light bulbs are being phased out from the domestic market, where an equivalent LED light bulb is available. That’s why, in Australia, the government will subsidise the cost of purchasing LED bulbs when having them installed by an electrician.
Are halogen or LED lights cheaper to run?
There’s no contest here, with LED lights coming out the clear winner.
According to the Australian government, LEDs are hands down better value for money than halogen light bulbs, using about 75% less energy than halogen light bulbs.
What’s more, they have been shown to last 5 to 10 times longer than halogen lights, which ends up cutting replacement costs.
The up-front cost of LEDs, which are commonly more expensive to purchase than halogen lights, generally has a payback time of less than one year. The official figures make it pretty clear. By replacing 10 halogen light bulbs with LEDs, the average household can expect to save more than $650 over 10 years on its power bill.
What option is better for the environment?
Because they don’t have to be replaced as often, LED lights are way better for the environment than halogen lights because they cut the number of lights that end up in landfill.
But that’s not all. Not only do you help ease the pressure on general waste by using LEDs, but by using LEDs instead of halogens you also assist in cutting greenhouse emissions. How? By using less power-intensive lighting at home, you ease the demand on the power grid, thereby contributing to less usage of fossil fuels, cool right?
Is halogen brighter than LED?
Halogens are not brighter than LEDs, brightness is measured by the lumen rating, and the higher the lumen rating the brighter the bulb is, an LED light will also reach full brightness immediately after being switched on, whereas, a halogen light does take longer.
Brightness in some areas of the home, like the bathroom and kitchen, is important for functionality. But for other spaces like the living room and dining, you may want to avoid the ‘clinical’ look that is often associated with LEDs.
The good news is that LEDs offer a range of lighting, from warmer tones to that bright white.
What’s safer, halogen or LED?
LED wins again here. Why? It’s all about heat.
LED lights, by contrast, produce 80% less heat than halogen lights, experts say, they never get hot enough to burn you or spark any substances which could cause further harm.