How to choose a proper LED lighting solution for your home

By Robert Ahrens – Product Manager, Lumenerds (www.lumenerds.com)

We’ve been asked by a number of people what to look for when choosing an LED lighting solution for a high-end custom home or business/commercial application. In some cases, LED lighting was a desirable solution to replace costly incandescent lighting with more efficient LED solid-state lighting. In other cases, homeowners and contractors sought to use LED lighting in new-build home and business applications. Still others simply wanted more controllability in their LED lighting within smart-lighting systems.

In all cases, my first recommendation is to seek consistency in the products by only purchasing from a single manufacturer who has taken the time and effort to create a line of LED products which work together seamlessly to ensure consistency in color and electronic circuitry across the entire product line. One contractor who bought a truck-load of LED lights from a big-box store stated that after they were installed, “they looked light ‘holiday lights’ with all sorts of colors coming from the different lights.”

I’ve heard other horror stories where complete installations of new LED lights were ‘burning out’ in relatively short periods of time, not because of the LED itself, but because of cheap electronic components not being able to handle the day-to-day heat cycles generated by the complete LED fixture. LED lights do burn much cooler than conventional incandescent lighting, but where circuitry exists in LED lighting, the quality of circuit boards, wiring and solder points are as important as the actual LED.

UL listings are a good place to start when selecting LED products. But in my opinion, it’s even more important to select LED lighting vendors who have been around for a while and have a proven track record of producing high-end products and systems. Here, LED product design, engineering, research and reputation are as important as UL listings. As with any new technology, LED companies come and go, bursting on the scene with low-quality import knock-offs, only to fade back into obscurity after selling boatloads of inexpensive LED lights to unsuspecting customers. These manufacturers lure unsuspecting customers with lower prices…but deliver substandard LEDs packaged with cheap circuitry. This is where the sellers make their money. With LED products, you get what you pay for. If you are looking for color-matched LED lights that last upward of 15 years or more, selecting the right manufacturer becomes critically important. LED lighting should be approached as an investment in lighting. Your investment will pay future dividends in lower energy consumption and lower costs over time.

I’ve personally been around the design, manufacturing and marketing of LED lighting since 2005. My partner has been in the business for 10 years. We’ve experienced many improvements in the LED lighting industry over that time and have witnessed countless client installations. The most challenging aspect to date has been satisfying the needs of discriminate architects and lighting designers with requirements beyond current market maturity. In laymen’s terms, the burgeoning LED industry has been unable to meet the demands of high-end architects.

In my experience, this obstacle is similar to the obstacles facing internet start-ups during the dot-com phenomenon of the early 90’s. In those days, it was absolutely critical to work with the innovators who held the keys to high quality and breakthrough innovation. Consistency across product-lines which met and exceeded the most discriminate customer demands was what “made or broke” internet companies and clients during the internet bubble era. The same is true today with the rapidly emerging market of LED lighting. I recently heard an LED engineering thought leader say “one day all the lights you see in this world will be solid state.” This is exactly what computer engineers and programmers were saying 20 years ago about desktop computers.

Now back to 2010; LED lighting is taking its place in technological history. Just as with the emergence of computer hardware and software, solid state lighting is as much about imagination and art as it is about function. This is what we consistently hear from high-end architects and lighting designers. They’re excited about the world of creative possibilities in utilizing artful lighting in a custom home or business…all while saving an average of 75% in energy consumption and reducing replacement costs to near zero.

What excites me is the fact that solid-state lighting will make a profound reduction in the world’s energy consumption. The U.S. Dept. of Energy reported in 2007 that if all recessed downlights in the U.S. were replaced with LEDs, the annual electricity consumption of 12.8 large power plants or 6.7 million homes would be saved. That’s a lot of coal plants…and a lot of pollution that will be eradicated once Americans make the shift to LED and solid-state electronics. That shift is definitely underway as government programs, rebates and tax incentives are increasingly available for the large-scale use of LED lighting in homes and businesses.

Back to my original comments to potential buyers of LEDs at the beginning of this article, the single most important thing to look for when selecting a manufacturer is a proven reputation for highest-quality LEDs and components. A reputable manufacturer is one who has taken the time and effort to research and engineer electronic components designed specifically for high-quality, premium LEDs. LED products should be thought of as complete systems and not just a sum of individual parts.

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