subject: The differences between halogen and LED bulbs [print this page] LED bulbs are the rising stars of the home lighting market. The halogen bulbs that people have been using for decades are finally falling out of favour with the public and governments for a variety of reasons, primarily energy efficiency. Compared to more contemporary substitutes such as GU10 LED bulbs halogen bulbs are highly inefficient when it comes to energy usage, and their replacement with more efficient lighting will therefore reduce the amount of pollution produced as a result of lighting. People also favour switching over to LED bulbs as the energy efficiency will help them to save money on their electricity bill.
Energy efficiency isn't the only difference between GU10 LED bulbs and conventional lighting; there are a number of ways the two differ from one another. Whilst halogen bulbs naturally produce a warm, white light an LED produces light at a very specific frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum, meaning that the light is a specific colour. There are a number of ways to make LEDs produce a white light, but this also means that coloured lighting is easy to produce using LED bulbs. The light produced by LEDs is also more directional than the light from halogen bulbs, so it is a lot easier to make spotlights using LED bulbs. LED bulbs are made out of plastic, rather than the glass that halogen bulbs require, making them more resilient and durable, as well as meaning that there won't be any sharp shards of glass to clear up if they are dropped and broken. LEDs also have a much longer operational lifespan than Halogen bulbs and last five times as long as their conventional counterparts, which saves money on buying replacements, and also doesn't pollute the world with as many worn out bulbs.
Energy efficiency is still the main selling point for LED bulbs, however, and this factor is well justified to be weighted thusly as the differences in energy consumption levels can be huge. For instance, a halogen bulb that uses 50 Watts of energy can be replaced by an LED bulb that produces the same amount of light for only 3 watts. In general LED bulbs tend to only use up one fifth of the energy than halogen bulbs do. This difference in efficiency comes about as a result of the way halogen bulbs work. Halogen bulbs run the electric current through a high-resistance wire which converts the electricity into light. However, running an electric current through a high resistance wire also produces a lot of waste heat. LEDs do not lose energy through heat; they only produce light, so they do not have such issues with inefficiency.
