Modern LED lamps: is the game worth the candle? Types of light bulbs and types of socles

“Halogen light bulbs in everyday life are not so common ... in terms of electricity consumption, they are only twice as efficient as conventional ones ...”

“They are relatively cheaper than LEDs and nominally consume much less electricity than incandescent bulbs. But besides the fact that they often do not fulfill the nominally declared efficiency, such lamps, having worked out their life, pose a powerful threat to environment due to the content of mercury in one of the components of the structure - the phosphor (from 5 mg to 1 gram).

It seems these two phrases are not very accurate.
Why? Co-official useful action= light divided by the consumed electricity. In my opinion, the efficiency of the lamps is as follows:
1. Efficiency 3-5% for heat: 3% for ordinary, 4% for short-lived heats, 5% for powerful heats. They are used in houses of the east and west.
The most durable in the world - it seems up to 15 years with nightly switching on were at the Brest plant during the Soviet era.
All imported incandescent lamps contain a jumper that burns out in ~ 25 days. So not worth the money at all. Although the Kalashnikov plant near Moscow in reddish packaging surpassed even imports - the lamps burn out in 1-3 days! In new capital times, capital monopolies dictate and worsen prices and quality on purpose, for the sake of super profits. The more often the lamps burn out, the more profitable it is for them. It's called product sabotage cap.~monopoly.! If you wish, you can find a product sabotage blacklist on the Internet, even for tens of thousands of product names.

2. Efficiency of 6-7% for hot incandescence - halogens, efficiency is almost twice as good - with a reflector. Now they have become popular in the east. They are becoming popular in the west too.

3. Efficiency 20% for standard fluorescent lamps, except for cyanotic ones with ordinary air.
They have been used in the USSR since the 1960s everywhere, in factories and offices and on the streets, except for less consuming home conditions, although some amateurs have also acquired houses. Transformer converters cannot burn out when the voltage is unstable.
Soviet and imported lumes are interchangeable, although they do not write about this.
Soviet lum - honest. Imported lume is 1.5-2 times more compact in diameter, but usually 1.5-2 times weaker in light - according to experimental measurements, i.e. inscriptions of the most famous firms - they lie brazenly and without blushing.
At home, table lumens have become popular in the ex-USSR. For example, 11W lum in the case of the best spectrum and gas composition - really replaces a 75W incandescent lamp in table lamp!
Electronic voltage converters have an efficiency of almost 100%, and do not itch, although they occasionally fail when the voltage of the new Chubais times is unstable, 280V instead of 220V. Occasionally even 320V instead of 220V.
You can make it more reliable on your own - an eternal electronic converter.
It is possible to make a lum - potentially eternal, with a zero cost of operation.
Analogy of a lum-lamp in nature? Polar Lights!

As a child, in my spare time in the evenings I did chemical experiments. Sometimes the mercury smoke was so thick that it was impossible to see your hand for half a day. in my opinion, the consequences of mercury poisoning are very exaggerated, it is suspicious. Mercury is a valuable thing for obtaining interesting compounds. To do this, it may be worth collecting scarce mercury in a small vial with a high-quality airtight stopper, buying some medicines in a pharmacy for the sake of a vial and throwing them away. And don't give it to anyone! Especially for free. :)
But in the lumes in the phosphor of mercury, there is too little mercury to be collected, let alone poisoned.

4. Efficiency 15-25% for LED, typical efficiency 15% for bluish, 25% for the best rare ones. This novelty is still too expensive for the impoverished in the exUSSR. And the efficiency is too unstable. Although potentially in laboratory conditions, even an efficiency of 42% has been achieved in one sample.

What can be said in the end? In my opinion, in the conditions of the ex-USSR in factories, streets, and now at home, it is still worth using lume lamps. It is most profitable to use 1-2 Soviet lumes - the most powerful 60W or 80W or 150W at a price of $ 0.5-1, which is equivalent to an incandescent lamp up to 1000W. You can make your own lume adjustment, which the rich can buy - there is already in Europe one model of an adjustable ceiling lume at a price of 1500 euros.
Lum-lamps are more profitable in the long run than the widely available quick-burning stearin candles of the 19th century, the readily available fast-burning incandescents and halogens, and the inaccessible too weak LEDs with too unstable efficiency are slightly worse.

For the time being, it is more profitable to sabotage capital monopolies and cartels in the field of lamps, and their custom-made articles like this one, and the decrees of some of their proteges-presidents - for example, to ban mercury and, therefore, all lume lamps for supposedly good purposes.
Is it really possible to suddenly listen to them, throw out all the lume lamps around, and sit in the dark?
In my opinion, such mercury bans may even look like terrorism against everyone!

But potentially in the future, when LEDs run in to normal stability and efficiency of more than 25%, and maybe 42%, then LEDs will become more profitable due to greater efficiency and durability, even if they are high in price.

Yes, interesting arguments in favor of fluorescent lamps. But the future, apparently, will be with LEDs when they fall in price to conventional incandescent ones)

Continuation. When turned on, the electronic ballast clicked its teeth, burning out immediately.
Could not find another electronic ballast for a month of searching. The magicians said that they might bring another electronic ballast next time - in the spring, maybe next year, or more likely in 2-3 years.
I managed to buy the cheapest Chinese digital multimeter for 300 rubles in a month, choosing in the magician one normal one out of 20 pieces showing with an excessive error of 20-30%.
I had to open and repair the only available electronic ballast.
All parts with incomprehensible designations are new color-coded. And burned transistors and resistors. I had to think about how it should work, and what resistors and transistors could be there if I came up with the circuit.
For more than a month I have been calculating, looking for details, at the same time slightly redesigning and upgrading the circuit. And he picked up different things experimentally, measuring the numbers - in the northern winter twilight, standing on a swinging stool on one leg, under the ceiling, squeezing a multimeter with his chin, looking at the indicator with one eye, looking at the probe with the other eye, touching the parts with the probe, avoiding the tracks on the board, between which the air was a spark of kilovolts, and currents burned the paths. In general, this activity was not easy, and not for the faint of heart.

Result? Lum-tube with the inscription 36W, when turned on, began to shine - consuming 135W with a redesigned circuit, with cold or warm parts with almost no heating - with an efficiency closer to 100%, which we managed to put into the same metal electronic ballast with the inscription 36W. It seems to have no analogue in the world.
One 135W luminous tube with up to 5 times more economical efficiency is enough to illuminate the entire room almost like a glow lamp up to 675W! Ultimate minimalism!
After a while, we managed to get one more last same electronic ballast with the inscription 36W in some warehouse, which turned out to be reliable, but its measured real power turned out to be only 22W, that is, the power is worse by as much as 36W / 22W = 1.6 times than it is written.
So we managed to upgrade the real power by as much as 135W/22W=6.1 times!
Then, checking somewhere else, I found out that such a lie of capital monopolies seems to be inherent in all imports, including well-known brands - to a lesser extent. Unlike Soviet honest PRA, at the same time measured too.
Then I accidentally found a switch with a rope for 100 rubles. I screwed it to the ceiling to control the power of the lume tube in the direction of decreasing, because full power is rarely needed. If it burns out, then it will probably be possible to replace it with a lume tube of any length and power from 36 to 80W, or a less reliable spiral compact CFL that you can find.

And what can be said about the durability of the lume? The inscription about work up to 10,000 hours is more suitable for Soviet lumes. And cap.branded inscriptions lie many times over, because in reality cap.lumes work from 1 second to 3 years, and rarely 5 years. Firms deliberately underform lumes, grossly violating manufacturing technology, in order to cause a quick burnout of one of the filaments when it is turned on - product subotage.
How to increase the durability of cap.lums up to 10,000 hours, and even more at times? Some Soviet engineers invented new methods of lum molding and so on at home, which can increase durability by 2-6 times when all methods are combined. It seems that this is also not yet described in the literature anywhere. They require the modernization of the circuit, and the purchase of several difficult parts.
Under what conditions is it important to improve durability? With a shortage of lumes, as in my case, so that this powerful lume can also become eternal. Then at the same time there will never be mercury waste 1 milligram in the form of burned lum.
Compact spiral lum-energy-saving lamps are expensive, because they are always sold with integrated electronics, which makes up to 95% of the cost in price. Therefore, some, even far from soldering, began to be interested in do-it-yourself modernization, and increase durability many times over in new ways - for all their lumes, new purchased ones and even old ones. Very profitable!

Even when the lume filament burns out at one or both ends, instead of throwing out the lume, more advanced economical ones can turn on the lume light for another six months to several years, if the circuit is slightly modernized - to semi-heating, or cold start of the lum without heating, using a high-voltage discharge, lightning through any gas. Of course, capital monopolies will never give you the useful information described above. Even if they knew something about it. After all, what is both beneficial and environmentally friendly for everyone is very unprofitable for capital monopolies. It seems that the interests of capital monopolies are always opposed to the interests of everyone. :)

As promised, supplements on how to choose the right lamp.
After the power, the color of the lamp temperature is important. It often happens due to poor selection in the store, the lamp seems bluish or yellowish-reddish - generally darkish uncomfortable, which leads to fatigue and the need to buy lamps up to 3 times more powerful.
How to choose lamps so that their light always seems comfortable white even at minimum power? There is almost no information on the Internet on this subject. Many years of experience in buying lamps of different temperatures and power lead to a choice according to a rare schedule:

If you use the highest quality durable things, then the consumption of energy and things is reduced to a minimum. So at the same time there is no waste, environmentally friendly.
Which bulbs are the most durable? To answer this question, everyone will have to go through a lot when choosing on the market, wasting time and money. Maybe that's why the market economy is the most inefficient laggard?
It is possible to reduce the search for each, if you consult with each other, in the Soviet way. :)
Advice. Of the efficient, energy-efficient compact fluorescent CFLs that have been field-tested, only two have delivered the promised lifespan of over 10,000 hours.
One in a table lamp 11W, the warmest 2300K, turned on every evening for a long time, lasted more than 10 years. Worthy of the photo below.
The second CFL, sold the most powerful ~ 36W, the warmest 2300K, the only one with a soft start ~ 1 sec, turned on in the kitchen in the chandelier for a long time and often 10-20 times every evening, has been serving for the 10th year, without noticeable signs of aging. Made at some rare ~Soviet factory **** Gorsky - only once seen for sale. Too lazy to unscrew the chandelier-plafond to look more accurately.
And the remaining 10 pieces, from Chinese to Russian and European, of different warmth and power 26-36W, burned out quickly. Some up to $10 burned out faster than incandescent bulbs. Buying such CFLs is money down the drain.
Now I avoid CFL. And I avoid LEDs, except for a flashlight.
I returned to light tubes, incandescent lamps and halogens.
Maybe it's worth a try - mercury DRL, sodium HPS, and metal halide MGL. There it seems the efficiency is even more economical as much as 1.5-2 times. And with a lot of mercury for starting without a high-voltage pulse, the durability can be many times longer. It is them b that are forbidden. Looks like capital monopolies again dictate a deterioration in quality, durability, and therefore ecology ...

Unlike conventional incandescent lamps, which differ only in power and workmanship, LED lamps have many parameters that affect the quality and safety of lighting. I will talk about the main parameters of LED lamps and recommend which lamps are best for your home.

Power

LED lamps should not be chosen by power - the efficiency of different lamps is different and lamps with the same power can vary greatly in brightness: lamps that replace a regular 60 W pear bulb can have a power of 6 to 10 W, lamps that replace a 40 W "candle" can have a power of 4 to 7 watts.

Equivalent power

Most LED lamp manufacturers list the wattage equivalent of an incandescent lamp. For example, the package may say that the lamp has a power of 6 W and shines like a 60 W incandescent lamp. Some manufacturers indicate this equivalent rather incorrectly, so I recommend that you always pay attention not to the power equivalent, but to the luminous flux.

Light flow

The brightness of the lamp, or rather the amount of light that the lamp gives, is determined by the "luminous flux" parameter, measured in lumens (lm, lm).
For ordinary lamps (pears, candles), you can approximately estimate the required luminous flux by multiplying the power of an ordinary incandescent lamp by 10: 40 W - 400 lm, 60 W - 600 lm, 100 W - 1000 lm. So, if you are looking to buy an LED bulb to replace a 60W incandescent bulb, look for bulbs with at least 600 lumens of light output.

Unfortunately, many manufacturers overestimate the value of the luminous flux. In reality, it can even be half as low as stated, and a lamp that should shine like a 60-watt incandescent lamp will only shine like a 25-watt one. The actual values ​​of the luminous flux can only be known from the results of independent testing.

Colorful temperature

Incandescent lamps shine with a warm yellowish light with a color temperature of 2700-2800K. If you want the LED lamp to give light that is as similar as possible to the light of an incandescent lamp, choose lamps with a color temperature of 2700-2800K. Many LED lamps have a color temperature of 3000K - this is a whiter, but no less comfortable light. The light of lamps with a color temperature of 4000K is called "neutral white". This light is more suitable for office space. It is believed that white light helps to increase efficiency, and yellow helps to relax and unwind, so at home in the evening the light should be warm with a color temperature of no higher than 3000K. Lamps with cold white light of 5000K and above are intended for use in utility rooms. They don't belong at home.

Voltage

LED lamps are produced that operate from a 220-230 V network and from 12 volt power sources.

LED lamps use drivers (electronic boards installed in the lamp base) different types. Many lamps use stabilized drivers. The brightness of such lamps does not change when the mains voltage fluctuates over very large limits. Some of the lamps shine equally brightly when the mains voltage drops from 230 to 70 volts. Unfortunately, manufacturers often do not indicate the actual voltage range: 220-240 V or 230 V may be written on the packaging of the lamp, but in reality the lamp burns at a much lower voltage.

12 volt lamps are available with E27, E14, GU5.3, G4 bases and can operate on both DC and AC voltages. Most microlamps with a G4 base and some spot lamps with a GU5.3 base, when operated on AC voltage, have a very high light pulsation, which is harmful to the eyes and well-being in general. In order to avoid pulsing such lamps, you will have to replace the transformers with DC power supplies.

Color rendering index (CRI, Ra)

The light of an LED lamp differs from the light of an incandescent lamp in its spectrum. Although the light looks white, there are more color components in it, and less in others. The color rendering index indicates how uniform the level of different color components is in light. At low Ra, shades are less visible. Such light is visually unpleasant, and it is very difficult to understand what is wrong in it. Incandescent and sun lamps have Ra above 98, good LED lamps have more than 80, very good ones have more than 90. It is better not to use lamps with Ra below 80 in residential premises.

Unfortunately, some manufacturers overestimate Ra: Ra > 80 is written on the box, but in fact it only slightly exceeds 70, and it is better not to use such lamps in residential premises.

Operation with a switch having an indicator

Many LED lamps do not work correctly with switches that have an indicator light or LED. When the switch is turned off, these lamps flash or glow dimly. Only a few manufacturers indicate whether their lamps work with such switches.

Dimmer support

Most LED lamps cannot be dimmed, but special dimmable LED lamps are available that support dimming. These lamps work with most conventional incandescent dimmers, but the minimum dimming level can be quite high (about 20%). In order for the lamps to be dimmable when dimming to almost zero, it is necessary to use special dimmers for LED lamps.

Ripple of light

The pulsation of light leads to eye fatigue and a general deterioration in well-being, so it is very important to use only those lamps that do not have visible pulsation. According to SNIP for various types rooms, the pulsation of light is normalized in the range of 5-20%, in fact, a pulsation of up to 35% is imperceptible to a person. Only a few manufacturers write "no pulsation" on the packaging of the lamps. Other lamps may have a low ripple level, but this is not indicated in the lamp parameters. The presence of pulsation can be checked using the "pencil test" or by looking at the light of the lamp through the smartphone's camera (if there is pulsation, stripes will be visible on the screen).

Illumination Angle

Conventional incandescent lamps shine in all directions, halogen spots give a narrow beam of light. With LED lamps, everything is more complicated.

Many LED lamps that replace conventional incandescent lamps have a hemispherical cap the same diameter as the body. Such lamps practically do not shine back and if they are directed downwards, the ceiling will remain dark, which can be uncomfortable. Fortunately, many lamps have recently appeared, the transparent cap of which is larger than the body and due to this, the lamp shines a little back.

LED filament lamps have the same wide angle of illumination as conventional incandescent lamps.

Most LED spots (lamps for suspended ceilings with GU10 and GU5.3 bases) shine with diffused light with an angle of about 100 degrees and dazzle due to a too wide angle (halogen spots give a narrow beam of light with an illumination angle of about 30 degrees). Only some LED spots have the same narrow angle of illumination as halogen lamps. Such lamps are easily recognizable by the presence of lenses in front of the LEDs.

Lamp type

In a conventional LED lamp, several LEDs are covered with a cap (usually frosted). Sometimes there are still obsolete corn lamps, the entire surface of which is covered with many small LEDs, reminiscent of corn grains on the cob. A new type of LED lamps - filament lamps (or LED filament lamps). Such lamps look very similar to incandescent lamps - they have a glass bulb and a wide angle of illumination. Inside the lamp there are LED filaments - ceramic or metal plates, on which many small LEDs are placed in a row.

Such lamps are more efficient than conventional ones (they give more than 100 lm / W) and their light is as close as possible to the light of incandescent lamps. Most filament lamps are transparent, but there are also frosted ones. The disadvantage of such lamps is a lower service life compared to conventional LED lamps.

Life time

Manufacturers indicate lamp life from 10,000 to 50,000 hours. In fact, no one knows how long a lamp will last in reality, because technologies are improving very quickly and all service lives are calculated theoretically. I recommend paying attention not to the specified service life, but to the warranty period, during which you can exchange a lamp that has failed.

Guarantee

All LED bulbs come with a 1 to 5 year warranty. Stores are required to replace lamps under warranty within this period if they fail. In addition, under consumer protection law, you can return the lamps to the store within 14 days of purchase if you do not like them, provided that the packaging is intact and, if possible, a receipt.

How to choose good lamps

The choice of LED lamps is not an easy task. Even the most famous manufacturers, there are lamps with unacceptably high pulsation. Some manufacturers have some good lamps, and some not so good. In order to know exactly which lamps are good and which are not, I created a project for independent testing of LED lamps http://lamptest.ru. I test the lamps and publish the results of measuring all the main parameters. More than 1000 models of lamps from 75 brands have already been tested and work continues. Therefore, the easiest choice is to find the lamp you are interested in on lamptest and look at its measured parameters:

The ripple factor should not exceed 35% (and it is better that it be less than 10%);

The color rendering index must be at least 80 (for utility rooms it is possible from 70);

The luminous flux must be no less than that of the incandescent lamp that you want to replace with LED;

If you have a switch with an indicator, make sure the lamp can work with it correctly.

If you have a dimmer installed, make sure the lamp is dimmable;

If you choose spot lamps, pay attention to the angle of illumination. Lamps with an angle greater than 50° will dazzle when installed in the ceiling of a large room.

If the lamp you are interested in is not yet on the lamptest.ru website, I recommend that you follow the following selection criteria:

If the packaging says "no ripple", it is highly likely that the lamp light ripple will be less than 5%. If it is not specified and it is possible to turn on the lamp, look at its light through the camera mobile phone. There should be no stripes across the screen. Try swirling a pencil or other long object in front of the lamp. If the contours of the pencil are blurred, there are no ripples, if you see "several pencils" there is a visible ripple and you should not buy such a lamp.

See how the skin of the hand looks under the light of the lamp. If the color is grayish, the lamp has a low color rendering index and it is better not to buy it.

Compare the brightness of the lamp to that of an incandescent or other lamp whose brightness you know. A rough comparison can be made using the light sensor of most Android smartphones. Install any light meter application (for example Sensors Multitool and select "light" there). The sensors of all smartphones are not calibrated, so the values ​​for all smartphones will be completely different, but for comparison, this is not important. In advance, take a matte lamp of the same shape as you want to buy at home, launch the application and lean the smartphone with the sensor against the lamp (the sensor is located above the screen on the left or right, bring it to the top of ordinary lamps and to the center of the side of candle lamps). Write down the resulting value. In the store, turn on the lamp, wait at least a minute (when warming up, LED lamps lose up to 12% brightness), launch the application and lean the sensor against the lamp. Compare the value with the one measured at home. Now you will know almost exactly whether the measured lamp is brighter than the one measured at home, or dimmer.

Pay attention to the date of manufacture of the lamp (for most lamps, it is indicated on the body). If the lamp was released more than two years ago, it's better not to buy it - progress is very fast and modern lamps are better than those that were produced before.

pay attention to guarantee period. If the warranty is long (3-5) years, the probability of lamp failure is much less.

Take a photo of the receipt after purchase. If the bulb fails, this photo will help you get it replaced under warranty if the original receipt gets lost or faded.

I wrote this article for Yandex-Market. I hope she helps a large number people do not go wrong with the choice of good LED lamps.

Modern technologies in lighting have significantly expanded, but at the same time complicated the choice of light bulbs for home use. If earlier in 90% of apartments, apart from ordinary incandescent bulbs from 40 to 100W, there was little, but today there are a great many varieties and types of lighting lamps.

Buy in the store desired view lamps for the lamp is not such an easy task.
What do you want from high-quality lighting in the first place:

• eye comfort

• energy savings

• harmless use

Plinth type

Before buying a light bulb, it is first important to determine the type of base you need. Most household lighting fixtures use two types of screw base:

It differs according to the diameter. The numbers in the designation and indicate its size in millimeters. That is, E-14=14mm, E-27=27mm. There are also adapters for lamps from one lamp to another.

If the ceiling lamps of the chandelier are small, or the lamp has some specifics, then a pin base is used.

It is denoted by the letter G and a number that indicates the distance in millimeters between the pins.
The most common are:

• G5.3 - which are simply inserted into the socket of the lamp
• GU10 - first inserted and then turned a quarter of a turn

The spotlights use the R7S base. It can be for both halogen and LED lamps.

The power of the lamp is selected based on the limitation of the lighting device in which it will be installed. Information about the type of base and the power limit of the lamp used can be seen:

• on the box of the purchased lamp
• on the ceiling of the already installed
• or on the bulb itself

Flask shape

The next thing to pay attention to is the shape and size of the flask.

A flask with a threaded base may have:

Pear-shaped are designated by the nomenclature - A55, A60; ball - the letter G. The numbers correspond to the diameter.
Candles are marked with the Latin letter - C.

A flask with a pin base has the shape:

• small capsule
• or flat reflector

Lighting standards

Lighting brightness is an individual concept. However, it is generally accepted that for every 10m2 with a ceiling height of 2.7m, a minimum illumination equivalent to 100W is required.

Illumination is measured in lux. What is this unit? In simple words- when 1 lumen illuminates 1m2 of room area, then this is 1 lux.

For different rooms the rules are different.

Illumination depends on many parameters:

• distance from light source
• surrounding wall colors
• reflections of the light flux from foreign objects

Illumination is very easy to measure using familiar smartphones. It is enough to download and install a special program. For example - Luxmeter (link)

True, such programs and phone cameras usually lie compared to professional lux meters. But for domestic needs, this is more than enough.

Incandescent and halogen bulbs

The classic and most inexpensive solution for lighting an apartment is the familiar incandescent lamp, or its halogen version. Depending on the type of base, this is the most affordable purchase. Incandescent and halogen bulbs give a comfortable warm light without flickering and do not emit any harmful substances.

However, halogen lamps are not recommended to touch the bulb with your hands. Therefore, they must be packed in a separate bag.

When a halogen lamp burns, it heats up to a very high temperature. And if you touch her bulb with greasy hands, then residual voltage will form on it. As a result, the spiral in it will burn out much faster, thereby reducing its service life.

In addition, they are very sensitive to power surges and often burn out because of this. Therefore, they are put together with soft start devices or connected via dimmers.

Halogen lamps are mostly produced to operate from a single-phase network with a voltage of 220-230 volts. But there are also low-voltage 12 volts that require connection through a transformer for the corresponding type of lamp.

The halogen lamp shines brighter than the usual one, by about 30%, and consumes the same power. This is achieved due to the fact that it contains a mixture of inert gases.

In addition, during operation, particles of tungsten elements return back to the filament. In a conventional lamp, gradual evaporation occurs over time and these particles settle on the bulb. The light bulb dims and works half as much as a halogen one.

Color rendering and luminous flux

The advantage of conventional incandescent lamps is a good color rendering index. What it is?
Roughly speaking, this is an indicator of how much light close to the sun is contained in the scattered flux.

For example, when sodium and mercury lamps illuminate the streets at night, it is not entirely clear what color people's cars and clothes are. Since these sources have a poor color rendering index - in the region of 30 or 40%. If we take an incandescent lamp, then here the index is already more than 90%.

Now the sale and production of incandescent lamps with power over 100W are not allowed in retail stores. This is done for security reasons. natural resources and energy savings.

Some still mistakenly choose lamps based on the power inscriptions on the package. Remember that this figure does not indicate how brightly it shines, but only how much electricity it consumes from the network.

The main indicator here is the luminous flux, which is measured in lumens. It is on him that you need to pay attention when choosing.

Since many of us previously focused on the popular power of 40-60-100W, manufacturers for modern economical lamps always indicate on the packaging or in the catalogs that their power corresponds to the power of a simple incandescent bulb. This is done solely for the convenience of your choice.

Luminescent - energy saving

Fluorescent lamps have a good level of energy saving. Inside them is a tube from which a flask is made, coated with phosphor powder. This provides a glow 5 times brighter than incandescent lamps at the same power.

Luminescent ones are not very environmentally friendly due to the deposition of mercury and phosphor inside. Therefore, they require careful disposal through certain organizations and containers for receiving used light bulbs and batteries.

They also have a flickering effect. It is easy to check this, just look at their glow on the display through the smartphone camera. It is because of this reason that it is not advisable to place such bulbs in residential areas where you are constantly located.

LED

LED lamps and fixtures different forms and designs are widely used in various spheres of life.

Their advantages:

• thermal overload resistance
• little effect on voltage drops
• ease of assembly and use
• high reliability under mechanical stress. Minimal risk that it will break when dropped.

LED lamps heat up very little during operation and therefore have a plastic light body. Thanks to this, they can be used where others cannot be installed. For example, in stretch ceilings.

Energy savings for LEDs are more significant than for luminescent and energy-saving ones. They consume about 8-10 times less than incandescent lamps.

If we roughly take the average parameters for power and luminous flux, then you can get the following data:

These results are approximate and in reality will always differ, since a lot depends on the voltage level, the brand of the manufacturer and many other parameters.

For example, in the United States, in one fire station, an ordinary incandescent light bulb is still burning, which is already more than 100 years old. Even a special site was created, where through a web camera, online, you can watch her.

Filament

Recently, filament lamps have become very popular. This is the same LED, only it looks like a simple incandescent bulb when turned on.

This is precisely its feature and advantage, which is widely used in open fixtures.

For example, if we are talking about crystal chandeliers, then when using an ordinary LED lamp in it, because of its matte surface, the crystal will not “play” and will not shimmer. It shines and reflects light only with a directed beam.

In this case, the chandelier does not look very rich. The use of filament in them reveals all the advantages and all the beauty of such a lamp.

These are all the main types of lighting lamps widely used in an apartment and a residential building. Choose the option you need according to the above characteristics and recommendations, and equip your home correctly and comfortably.

Any lighting fixture not without lamps. Now in the shops there are many light bulbs with different characteristics. For some, the advantage is efficiency, for others, the brightness of the lighting.

Lamps should be selected based on their individual features and your needs.

energy saving

These lamps are a new generation, they do not contain mercury vapor, are compact, have a long service life (8-12 thousand hours), have an electromagnetic interference suppression system and provide flicker-free light.

LED

They are very economical (they consume 12 times less electricity than incandescent lamps), and have a record long service life (up to 50 thousand hours). Manufacturers give a guarantee for these lamps for up to three to five years. Products may have different shape and color.

incandescent

The glow of this lamp (known in our country as Ilyich's lamp) is provided by heating the tungsten coil. Incandescent lamps are most common in Russia and the CIS countries, they are mainly used for outdoor, local and general lighting in everyday life. They come in different capacities, have a transparent or matte flask.

Halogen

The light from such lamps is pleasing to the eye and safe for the eyes. They are used in offices, in production, etc. These products are relatively economical, have excellent color reproduction, are characterized high level ultraviolet radiation.

When choosing the intensity of lighting, you need to pay attention to all the characteristics of the lamps you buy, and not just their power. This is the only way to ensure optimal light for any room.

The idea of ​​switching to LED (in everyday life - "ice", from the abbreviation LED, Light Emitting Diode) lamps for home use is gradually conquering the minds of consumers. The process, it should be noted, proceeds at a decent speed - the era of brutal prices is already behind us, the price gap between LED and energy-saving lamps has now been reduced to an acceptable level. Maybe it's time?

Sylvania LED lamps

Quite a lot has been written about the advantages of such lamps, at 3DNews we have already analyzed all the main technical aspects of these complex electronic devices. What they don’t write down as pluses for LED lamps: almost eternal work (up to 50,000 hours), and environmental friendliness, and energy consumption tending to zero ... only they don’t brew coffee.

The most interesting thing is that almost all of this is indeed true, but with some reservations and point by point. However, when listing the pros, it is customary to carefully hush up the cons, which, unfortunately, even such super-wonderful lamps have.

⇡ Cons

For example, service life. 50,000 hours is an ideal that is not currently achievable, at least because no one can practically confirm whether the lamps of a particular brand and series of today's manufacturer will actually burn continuously for almost six years without shutting down.

Next is the color spectrum of the glow. Unfortunately, not all manufacturers can really give honest "warm" light with a temperature of about 2700-3000K. As a result, you can buy both 6000-kelvin monsters with an unearthly dazzling white light that fades into blue, and lamps that give a dull yellow light. Not warm, but bright yellow. Many Chinese manufacturers are sinning with this today, but we will get to that today.

GU10 form factor spotlight

As for form factors and in general appearance LED lamps, they are available for all the most common cartridges: E27, E14, GU10 and MR16. Moreover, there are options with a light-scattering bulb, and simply with “naked” LEDs on the top, and even “corn-lamps” that are unusual for the look. Here it is already a matter of taste and scope: if the lamp is hidden by decorative lampshades or just overlays, even a simpler option with open LEDs will do. For chandeliers, the choice with flasks and reflectors looks more decent.

And here is the notorious "corn" lamp

The minus of lamps with a flat surface is not a wide enough angle of scattered light, mostly no more than 120 degrees. They are usually designed for spot lighting (eg in the bathroom) to replace traditional halogen lamps. Lamps with a bulb of this drawback, in general, are devoid of, and even the manufacturers of simple "light-emitting diodes" have already understood this, which now give the new lamps the look of a traditional incandescent lamp. Which, by the way, cannot be said about energy-saving lamps - they are also compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), which still look like ugly spirals.

⇡ Pros

The advantages of LED lamps are numerous, significant and obvious. Firstly, low electricity consumption: the average power of an LED lamp is from 1 to 7 watts. Secondly, an even light output and full power from the first second (no need to wait several minutes until the lamp warms up, unlike many CFLs). Thirdly, and importantly, unlike CFLs, LED lamps are much more environmentally friendly: if you drop and break such a lamp, you won’t have to worry about poisonous vapors of hazardous chemicals, as in the case of an old lamp.

When choosing LED lamps, you also need to pay attention to the aperture ratio, expressed in lumens. Most lamps give an average of no more than 250-400 lumens, and this is only enough if it is illuminated small room without pretensions to the quality of lighting in every corner, for example, table lighting or a toilet (albeit in the latter case, minus those who like self-education in this cozy office). In old Russian kitchens, one can still see antediluvian lamps with one horn: down with them! If there are 3-6 horns in the chandelier, this question can be safely ignored.

Externally, this OSRAM LED lamp is distinguished by the absence of a radiator

In terms of reliability, alas, everything is still about the same as with energy-saving lamps: in theory, tens of thousands of hours, but in practice everything directly depends on the curvature of the assembly, on the quality of the original components and, in total, on the conscientiousness of the manufacturer. In other words, you will have to check in practice.

Don't be surprised if one lamp lasts a long time and another from the same batch fails after a few weeks. Therefore, it is with such lamps that the notorious warranty comes to the fore: when buying, make sure that the free replacement under warranty of a failed lamp is at least a year old. Even better - three or more, but this is for serious brands like OSRAM or Philips.

⇡ Brands and "China"

At the dawn of LED-lamps popularity (and the dawn was only one and a half or two years ago), inexpensive "seven-bucks" light bulbs in Chinese online stores like Banggood or DX.com were in great demand, since in ordinary "offline" stores they cost 2 -4 times more expensive, and this is at least.

A variety of "corn" will offer any Chinese online store

But it’s not in vain that they say that the miser pays twice: it was these Chinese light bulbs, unfortunately, that did not suffer from good quality, and went out (and continue to fail) even earlier than other energy-saving ones. They could go out in a month, and in six months. And to a bunch of problems - perfect chaos in the quality of light, complete unpredictability of the color temperature of light even in one batch. You could easily have been sent "cold" instead of the ordered "warm white", and headache about the replacement of the goods would stretch for weeks.

LED lamp for E27 base without bulb

As for the brands, we repeat, it is too early to speak in terms of reliability, too little time has passed since the cheapening and mass operation of such lamps, too little practical information has been accumulated. Here, apparently, you will also have to check everything on your own experience. For example, my experience says that excellent CFL lamps (albeit with a slow starter) that work up to seven years (actually: tested on myself) were sold by IKEA, and, quite possibly, the Swedish concern orders LED ones no worse. And, of course, the aforementioned OSRAM and Philips.

But you can get by with unnamed Chinese ones for 90-150 rubles in online stores, or with the Russian Cosmos brand for the same price. Their CFL lamps did not differ in quality and reliability, but they were cheap. Chinese lamps bought in Russia are preferable to the same ones bought at DX.com: at least, because for warranty service you don’t have to wait for weather by the sea for a month or more.

Russian manufacturers should not be neglected: in recent times, individual companies have ensured the high stability of their products and thus demonstrate a significant interest in increasing consumer confidence. Over time, we will definitely return to this topic and try to explore LED bulbs from various domestic companies in more detail.

Russian LED lamps "Era"

Summing up, we can summarize the following. Of course, even now the transition to LED lamps is already economically viable (unlike last year), their cost is already more or less acceptable, and the price / quality balance, as usual, everyone decides for himself. However, the final, more or less reliable statistics on the reliability of LED lamps from different manufacturers will have to wait.