How much power does LED lighting consume?

How much power does LED lighting consume?

Do you want an energy-efficient home, but still want a luxurious look? In this video we explain how you can do this best!

How do I choose the right light source?

First, we will discuss what everything starts with. Choose the right light source. In simple terms, a light source is... an object that emits light. This can be natural sources such as the sun and the moon. We have different types of light sources in our range, for example: spotlights and bulbs. 

All these light sources have different fittings. The most modern fittings for a lamp are the E27 socket and for spot lighting the GU10 socket. Old-fashioned lamps sometimes have an E14 socket. See below 3 different pictures with the most common fittings. 

      1. GU10-socket   2. E27-socket     3. E14-socket

What do you look for when buying a light source?

• Fittings
• Burning hours
• Wattage
• Apparent power/Blind current

Burning hours

Burning hours are comparable to the mileage of a car. The more burning hours a lamp can tolerate, the longer it can burn. On average, an LED lamp lasts about 35,000 hours. At INTOLED, we thought this was a bit low. Our LED lights, for example, have an average life of 50,000 hours.

Wattage

Wattage is a well-known term. In the time of the incandescent lamps, mainly known for their high value, but with the advent of LED lighting, this value has been greatly reduced. Where an incandescent lamp used to be 25 watts, an average LED lamp is already 5 watts. The replacement wattage is then 25 watts.

The wattage stands for the unit of power of the lamp and what you ultimately pay your energy supplier. This energy supplier usually shows your consumption in kWh. Kilowatt hours. 1000 Watts equals one kilowatt hour. So, for example, if you have a 100-watt light bulb and it is on for 10 hours, you have used 1 kilowatt hour. The average energy price is 22 cents per kilowatt hour. The kilowatt hour is the actual power your led lamp consumes. 

Apparent power/Blind current

On the other hand, there is also apparent power. For your LED lamp, this power is the same as your actual power. With inductive loads such as fluorescent lighting, this is a little more complex. This is why the apparent power is higher than the actual power.

This is the reactive current and means that more current is consumed than is actually needed. The amount of this reactive current depends on the power factor. A high power factor equals a low amount of reactive current.