Is It A Good Idea To Buy Cheap, Lower Quality LED Lights?

The LED lighting revolution has brought with it many new providers that have entered the market within the past 18 months or so, looking to capitalise on growing demand from the commercial and domestic sectors. Like in any market, there are high quality, more expensive LED products and lower quality options that are naturally cheaper. This article will examine a few characteristics of inexpensive LED alternatives and why investing in them may not reap the benefits you’re after.

Longevity Issues

Part of the appeal of LED lights is their longevity compared to halogen and incandescent globes, indeed research indicates that compared to some older lights, LED alternatives will last as much as 50 times longer. Not only is this obviously convenient and represents value for money in itself, but there is also the added incentive of spending less time and money on replacing these globes.

When you have regular globes, it can be a hassle to have to go out, get new ones and install them yourself. Part of the appeal with LED Lights is that you may only need to do this (or have someone do it for you) every 8-10 years.

When you buy cheap LED lights, you’ll be getting lower quality products that can often fail within a year and possibly less. This works against one of the biggest drawcards or benefits that come from purchasing LED lights. Make sure you check the specs and know exactly what you’re buying.

Warranties and Guarantees

Unfortunately, even if the details look good, accountability can be a problem with low-end LED providers.

A good LED company will stand by its products, meaning that you have a warranty in place if the lights malfunction or don’t live up to what is required of them. This means you have a guarantee in place that you are getting the return on investment, and essentially the cost savings, that you are promised. This may not be the case with the cheaper products on the market. When you’re looking into LED solutions, do your homework on the suppliers you’re considering. Make sure you understand the terms of their warranty policy (if they have one) as this can be very important down the road.

Potential Problems With Safety

They’ve been cases already of cheaper LED lights having faulty wiring, and giving a slight shock to those that have touched them within a few months of being installed. This is often a risk if you buy the products online from overseas; for safety reasons we’d recommend against buying LED products on eBay, for instance.

But there are other potential safety issues that come with LED lighting if you are working with an inexpensive provider, or simply buying cheap products and installing them yourself. Some blue or white light LED lights have low colour temperatures, meaning the light is highly concentrated and ‘scatters’ when it reaches our retinas. The safety issue is that this can cause significant glare is certain environments. Not only can this damage the eye, but it can also reduce the visibility of workers in warehouses and factories, for instance.

Working with a commercial provider that understands these risks and can deliver a safer solution given your needs is essential. Not only will a high-quality LED lights wholesaler company provide great customer service to understand your business needs, whether commercial or residential, but they will provide the best value for money on state-of-the-art LED lights, that will save you in the long run. Speak to the team at littil LED today for more information.

Safety with High Visibility LED Lights

No doubt you’ve heard about how energy efficient and cost effective LED lighting can be compared to older lighting alternatives, something that has seen the number of homeowners and companies investing in the ever-improving LED technology all over Australia. Interestingly, there are a number of advantages in terms of general safety that LED lighting provides as well.

Replacing your globe with LED lighting alternatives can actually go a long way in preventing fire hazards and this article will discuss a few of the ways and reasons why.

Less of a Fire Hazard

As Australians, we are all aware of how devastating fires can be. Whether they be bushfires that burn through largely rural areas or house fires that are contained within a single room, they pose a huge threat to our wellbeing.

You may be surprised to hear that people using the wrong kind of light bulb in their fixture are one of the top five causes of home electrical fires. This is generally a case of wanting more brightness and using light bulbs that have a higher wattage than the light fixture can handle. When you’re constantly changing light bulbs several times a year, it just so happens that sometimes a mistake is made.

Thankfully, LED lights are a little different. Brightness is not determined by wattage, whereas there is a correlation between the two with incandescent bulbs. As they consume less energy and remain cool to touch, you are able to get the same brightness with a fraction of the wattage and they can be left on for hours without generating more heat. They therefore greatly reducing the chance of having a fire hazard on your hands, particularly in summer where excess heat can spark an electrical fire.

Shatter-Proof

The majority of LED lights are made out of hard plastic, meaning that they really - if ever - shatter, and are completely harmless if they do. They are cases in the past where fluorescent light bulbs have burst and shattered, which sends pieces of glass down onto the floor. This can be a considerable safety risk, particularly given that if the light is not working, you may be walking around in the dark and you can easily step onto a piece of glass! LED lights enable you to avoid this problem.

Health Benefits

One of the most overlooked benefits of LED lighting is the fact that it is free of certain UV emissions found in older lighting technology. These emissions can actually lead to several health conditions, in certain cases, including nasty things like skin cancer, headaches or even premature ageing. There was some concern when LED lighting first become popular that the nature and colour of the light could lead to eye strain, however, technology has improved to the point that warm lighting can also be produced and there is little risk of this occurring today.

Further, LED lights are free of the mercury that is found in incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs. This substance is actually toxic to humans and without a doubt poses a various risk to our health.

The list of advantages of LED flood lights with high visibility like NIMMO Floodlights are extensive and include the fact that they are more energy efficient, more cost effective, long lasting and require far less maintenance. But as this article has shown, there certainly are safety benefits as well and this is something you should consider if you are looking to invest in LED lighting in Australia. If you’re looking for more information, feel free to contact littil today for a discussion about your needs and initiate bigger changes with  steps towards LED. 

Choosing Commercial LED Tube Lights for Your Business

So you’ve made the decision to invest in LED tube lights for your business. The problem is you know very little about this technology and what solution you’re looking for. Working with a professional Australian-based provider will generally mean that you’re getting the right advice given your needs. But as is the case for any retail product, a little bit of knowledge about what you’re buying can put you in a much better position to make a decision and look at your options as objectively and clearly as possible.

This article will take you through some of the things you need to think about when buying LED tube lights to ensure that they fit your illumination needs.

Considering Length

The first thing you need to consider when it comes to tube lighting is the length of the lights. This will depend on the room that you are planning to install them and what their main purpose is. Most tube lights will vary from around 2 - 8 feet or more but this will vary from supplier to supplier.

Measuring Quality

Higher quality LED tube lights like Fortis T8 LED tubes will naturally be more expensive, so if you feel you are paying a little extra and you’re expecting a product that will perform and last, consider the CRI and CCT. These take into account the quality of the light and its temperature, which is a determining factor in a globe’s longevity. This information should be readily available of you take a look at the specs of your LED lights.

Colouring Rendering Index (or CRI) measures light quality, with a higher score indicating a greater spectrum of colours being produced by the light source. Generally speaking, for a casual commercial environment you’ll be looking at CRI of 80 or above, but in cases where high visibility is of great importance, you should consider LED tube lights 82 > CRI for the best results.

Correlated Colour Temperature (CCT) is all about the heat that the light produces and the colour of light it produces; the two are closely tied. One of the defining features of LED lights is the fact that they produce lower levels of heat, utilising more of their energy in producing light rather than heat.

That said, some heat is naturally still produced; LED globes with a higher CCT (usually 5000 kelvin+) will produce a much sharper, cooler white light. For those with a CCT of around 3000k, you’ll be getting a much warmer, comfortable light, possibly suited to a relaxed dining area or living room for example. Most work areas and office buildings ar best served with globes of around 4000k, but consider these factors when thing about the kind of atmosphere you wish to create in your commercial setting.

Light Optics

The optics of an LED globe essentially determine how concentrated or dispersed the light is. Clear optics will allow for a focused beam of light that is stronger but is contained in a smaller space. This is often the preferred option in for industrial applications where high visibility is very important.

For office spaces, you’ll generally be looking for Diffuse optics, which are moderate in terms of light dispersion but allow you to minimise glare and create a comfortable, relaxed working space. Wide beam optics are useful to splash light around a large room; the light is internationally directed upwards into the fixture which enables it to fill a room more easily. This means you have a smoother, well distributed beam of light rather than the ‘cave’ effect’ that can make large rooms quite uncomfortable.

This article has covered the basic considerations you and your supplier need to make when fitting your building for LED lights. Finding the balance is often best left to a professional if you have little experience, so it’s always worth while to chat it through with someone that has worked closely with T8 LED tube lights and is knowledgable about their product. For more information, we’d encourage you to get in touch with the team at littil today to discuss your LED needs or find out more information about the process.

5 Easy Ways YOU Can Save the Planet (Yes, Really!)

The fact that climate change is an ever-growing, man-made risk is shockingly still a divisive debate among the general public, with most people unable to grasp the severity of the situation and how they’re contributing to it. They don’t realize that 2016 was the hottest year recorded since 1880, that sea levels are rising at their fastest rate in 2,000 years, that global flooding is predicted to triple by 2030, or that 21.5 million people have been displaced since 2008 as a result of climate change-related weather occurrences.

If they did, they would join the 43 percent of UK residents who do, too and take proactive measures to counteract their carbon footprint. Here’s how you can start helping now:

Walk more and utilize public transit

If possible, opt to walk or bike more often than driving. Not only will this reduce greenhouse emissions, but it will save you money on gas and parking, and help improve your cardiovascular health! If walking is not an option due to weather, distance, or general health, take public transportation as often as possible. If you have the kind of job you can perform at home, you may want to discuss telecommuting options, even part-time.

Buy second-hand instead of new

While there may be key things you only feel comfortable buying new, consider giving gently-used items a second home. Buying second-hand furniture, clothes, books, and more are instrumental to sustainability. This delays the amount of time before these items will reach over-crowded landfills, as well as saving the resources it would cost to manufacture more of them. Think that cost is too low to make a significant difference? Consider the 2,700 litres to make one cotton t-shirt, or the 6,800 litres it takes to create one pair of blue jeans! 

Reduce water usage

Studies have found that the average person in the UK uses approximately 150 litres of water every day—so, where is all our water going? Ever leave the tap on when brushing your teeth? That wastes six litres per minute. Have a leaky tap in your home? That can add up to 5,500 litres of water a year! Sure, you can turn off the water while you brush and fix that leaky tap, but what about your toilet? There are approximately 45 million toilets in the UK, using a whopping two billion litres of water every day! If you truly want to make an environmental difference, consider an alternative. Specialist companies like Mr John furnish portable toilets that can save over 470 million litres of water every day!

Read: How Improper Waste Disposal Can Affect the Environment!

Donate or recyclable electronics

Longevity is a feature you look for when you purchase a computer, smartphone, or other electronic, but that same benefit becomes an environmental nightmare when you’re ready to part ways with your e-waste. The glass alone has the potential to take 1 to 2 million years to decompose! Greenpeace has found e-waste to be extremely toxic, thanks to the rechargeable batteries’ cadmium, LCD screens’ lead, printed wiring boards’ mercury, and much more. While the raw materials can be recycled, they often find their way to landfills or overseas. Donating your electronics will help reduce e-waste and also give someone the opportunity to own something they may not have been able to afford otherwise—it’s a green win-win!

Eat less meat

While no one is forcing you to become a vegetarian, cutting out meat (especially seafood) one or two days a week and limiting your portions can make a huge impact. This will take the burden off of the cropland that grows the food your food eats, as well as limit the amount of antibiotic- and hormone-treated animal waste that could infect our water. An increase in seafood consumption is even more detrimental to sustainability efforts. With commercial fishing operations working to meet the demand, many species of fish are in danger of extinction. In fact, certain conservation experts fear our oceans could be empty as soon as 2048 if no changes are made. So, the next time you reach for a second helping of beef or order fish for dinner again, consider how easily you could make a difference instead.

Now that you have a better understanding of the current climate change issues we’re facing and how your everyday decisions affect them, join us in taking the first step toward a more sustainable tomorrow.