3 Reasons LED Lights Are Now Better Than Ever
See how improved technology has made LED lights smaller, brighter and more energy-efficient
David Warfel
15 December 2019
Houzz Contributor. Expert lighting design specialist.
The past 15 years have seen the biggest advancements in lighting since Thomas Edison brought his incandescent bulb to the market. Light bulbs are now smart enough to listen to our voices and promote a better night’s sleep. Perhaps the most helpful advancement in lighting is the improved quality of LEDs. Today’s high-quality LEDs deliver impressive energy savings – close to 90 percent compared with incandescent bulbs – but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
LEDs are also driving a lighting revolution with smaller sizes, improved brightness and wide-ranging colours. Each of these improvements creates opportunities to illuminate your home in innovative new ways, making this a perfect time to rethink your home’s lighting.
LEDs are also driving a lighting revolution with smaller sizes, improved brightness and wide-ranging colours. Each of these improvements creates opportunities to illuminate your home in innovative new ways, making this a perfect time to rethink your home’s lighting.
1. Smaller sizes
LEDs can be as small as the head of a pin, and this allows us to light our homes more discreetly and with more precision than ever. LED strips can be hidden inside cabinets, drawers, hanging rods in wardrobes, shelves and just about any place you can imagine. This means we can now position light where it is needed instead of attempting to fill a room with a broad wash of light that often causes glare.
LEDs can be as small as the head of a pin, and this allows us to light our homes more discreetly and with more precision than ever. LED strips can be hidden inside cabinets, drawers, hanging rods in wardrobes, shelves and just about any place you can imagine. This means we can now position light where it is needed instead of attempting to fill a room with a broad wash of light that often causes glare.
The small size of today’s LEDs also makes it easy to add statement lighting to our homes. A few strips of LED lights tucked into a ceiling cove can make a classic ceiling feature even more dramatic, or it can make a statement by illuminating once-humble shelving.
Smaller recessed downlights are another result. It is now possible to illuminate your room with a series of three-centimetre downlights instead of the larger models of past decades. Many homeowners love the less-cluttered ceiling that results.
Smaller recessed downlights are another result. It is now possible to illuminate your room with a series of three-centimetre downlights instead of the larger models of past decades. Many homeowners love the less-cluttered ceiling that results.
2. Brighter light
While LEDs have become smaller in size, they have grown in brightness. The combination of small size and high brightness allows them to deliver functional light in new ways.
Brighter LEDs allow us to provide all the light we need inside cabinetry or on benchtops when placed discreetly underneath upper cabinets. This can reduce shadows on the benchtop to almost nothing – a much better and safer approach.
Find a lighting designer and supplier near you on Houzz to reduce your power bill and improve your wellbeing with good lighting
While LEDs have become smaller in size, they have grown in brightness. The combination of small size and high brightness allows them to deliver functional light in new ways.
Brighter LEDs allow us to provide all the light we need inside cabinetry or on benchtops when placed discreetly underneath upper cabinets. This can reduce shadows on the benchtop to almost nothing – a much better and safer approach.
Find a lighting designer and supplier near you on Houzz to reduce your power bill and improve your wellbeing with good lighting
Most LED light bulbs available to consumers are labelled with an equivalent incandescent bulb wattage, such as ‘60-watt equivalent’. This can be quite helpful, as you simply need a higher or lower number for the wattage equivalent if you want more or less light.
As a basic guide, one LED bulb equivalent to 60 watts should produce about 800 lumens, a technical measurement of the amount of light leaving a bulb.
10 Ways to Decorate Outdoors With Fairy Lights and LEDs
As a basic guide, one LED bulb equivalent to 60 watts should produce about 800 lumens, a technical measurement of the amount of light leaving a bulb.
10 Ways to Decorate Outdoors With Fairy Lights and LEDs
3. Wider range of colours
With a simple push of a button, LEDs can be mixed together to change into nearly any colour imaginable. Red, green, blue and white LEDs combine to create a rainbow of colours that can set the perfect scene for a romantic dinner (then even change into your favourite team’s colours for watching the big game, if you so desire).
While coloured LED lights have a certain novelty factor, selecting the right colour ‘temperature’ can make a dramatic difference for everyday lighting and your wellbeing. A bulb’s lighting facts will use the term ‘colour appearance’ or ‘colour temperature’. This helpful metric is measured in degrees Kelvin, with lower colour temperatures being warmer or amber (and more closely resembling candlelight), and higher colour temperatures being cooler or blue-based (which is recommended for daytime lighting, rather than for illuminating your home at night).
With a simple push of a button, LEDs can be mixed together to change into nearly any colour imaginable. Red, green, blue and white LEDs combine to create a rainbow of colours that can set the perfect scene for a romantic dinner (then even change into your favourite team’s colours for watching the big game, if you so desire).
While coloured LED lights have a certain novelty factor, selecting the right colour ‘temperature’ can make a dramatic difference for everyday lighting and your wellbeing. A bulb’s lighting facts will use the term ‘colour appearance’ or ‘colour temperature’. This helpful metric is measured in degrees Kelvin, with lower colour temperatures being warmer or amber (and more closely resembling candlelight), and higher colour temperatures being cooler or blue-based (which is recommended for daytime lighting, rather than for illuminating your home at night).
Your turn
Do you have LED lights at home? Tell us what you like about them in the Comments below, like this story, save the images, and join the conversation.
More
Curious to read more design updates? Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Shiplap Panelling
Do you have LED lights at home? Tell us what you like about them in the Comments below, like this story, save the images, and join the conversation.
More
Curious to read more design updates? Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Shiplap Panelling
What are you working on?
Related Stories
Decorating
10 Reasons Lighting Design is More Important Than You Think
By Omar Shahab
It's often an afterthought, but lighting can make your project sing – and designers often pay for themselves with smart design solutions
Full Story
Decorating
15 Must-Know Contemporary Lights and Their Illuminating Designs
These contemporary pendants and lamps are fast becoming design classics
Full Story
Decorating
Shining the Light on Good Lighting Design
By Melanie Shaw
Whether you're hiring a professional lighting designer or tackling the job yourself, here are 10 of the most important things to consider
Full Story
Lighting
50 Clever and Cosy Lighting Set-Ups Around the World
These lighting schemes leverage layering and gorgeous design to create a cosy ambiance for every room and mood
Full Story
Most Popular
From Planning to Pendants: Kitchen Lighting Essentials
By Joanna Tovia
This valuable guide will give you all you need to know about choosing kitchen lighting for fabulous form and function
Full Story
Most Popular
Uh-Oh, You Bought a Cave: 7 Ways to Lighten Up a Dark Home
How one homeowner used windows, doors, mirrors and skylights to bring light into her dark, dark home
Full Story
Kitchens
9 Ways to Illuminate Your Kitchen Without Relying on Downlights
By Kate Burt
From industrial wall sconces and giant pendants to tiny globes, see how UK Houzz designers are lighting kitchens
Full Story
For Pros
10 Contemporary Lighting Trends for 2022 From New York
Linear, colourful and flexible lighting illuminated the recent ICFF and WantedDesign Manhattan trade events
Full Story
Building Components
3 Reasons to Love Recessed Downlights... and Mistakes to Avoid
By David Warfel
Consider these pros and cons before including recessed lighting in your interior design
Full Story
Home Offices
4 Ways to Ensure Your Home Office Has Best-Practice Lighting
By David Warfel
Get the right mix of natural, task and accent lighting to increase your productivity and relaxation
Full Story
Upgrading our house from 2.7k halogen bulbs to 3k LED made the whole house feel newer. But not cold like 6k cool white which contributes to the blue light discussions
Thanks for the awesome writeup. I would have added 4th reason. i.e. discounted or free led lights replacement by government of vic
It's incredible to look back at your post from four years ago and reflect on the advancements in LED lighting. LED technology has continued to evolve, and your insights about smaller sizes, improved brightness, and energy efficiency remain highly relevant.