The lightbulb industry has gone through huge change over the last few years with the removal of incandescent lightbulbs to the market, which have been replaced by energy-saving bulbs. 

When it comes to selecting your decorative lighting the final piece of the puzzle is ensuring that you choose the correct light bulb for the fitting and for the desired lighting effect. 

There are a few things that you need to know to make sure that you purchase the correct lightbulb for your requirements. 

Lightbulb Fitting

Firstly, make sure you take a look at the lightbulb you are replacing or the light fitting so that you know what bulb fitting you require. This is a critical piece of information and without it you won't be able to get the bulb you need. The easiest thing to do is to take the old bulb with you to the store to ensure that you are getting the correct bulb fitting. 

The most common bulb fittings are Bayonet (B22/B15), Screw (E14/E27) or some other fittings are GU10 or MR16. If you make a note of the fitting reference you can then match it with the reference on the packaging of the new bulb. 

Upfront cost of LED Lights

Don't be put off by the upfront cost of LED lights, as they could save you hundreds of pounds in the long run. 

The three regular types of lightbulb are: 

1. CFLs - Compact Fluorescent Lamp the standard type of energy-saving light bulbs. CFLs are cheap and widely available in a range of sizes and outputs, they are 4 times more efficient than incandescent bulbs but not everyone likes the light they emit.
2. Halogens - light from Halogens is very similar to that of an incandescent bulb as they both use a filament. With an expected life span of two years, halogens are significantly more expensive to run than other energy saving options. 
3. LEDs - using almost 90% less energy than a traditional incandescent bulb, these are the most energy-efficient type of lighting. LEDs are usually more expensive to buy, but should last up to 25 years meaning in the long run they are the cheapest option. 

For more detailed insight into how much LED lights cost check out this article at Green Energy>>

Bulb Brightness and Colour

Next you need to decide the type of light that you would prefer. This is broken down simply into brightness and colour of light. Brightness is known as watts or lumen output, while colour of light is measured on the Kelvin scale.

Here is a short explanation of each to help out with the technical terms:

Lumens

When incandescent lightbulbs were more popular they were measured in Watts, which is actually a measure of power. Since the introduction of energy-saving bulbs, Watts is a less useful measure of brightness, as new bulbs use a lot less power to produce the same amount of light. Therefore light output is measured in lumens, the higher the number of lumens, the brighter the light.

As a rough guide 400 lumens would be suitable for a bed-sized lamp, whereas for your living room you might want between 1,500 and 3,000 lumens in total (from more than one bulb) depending on the mood that you are looking to create in the room.

Kelvins

Now you have decided on the brightness of the bulb, you need to decide on the colour of the light. The colour of the light can impact everything, from the mood in the room to the colour of the vegetables on your chopping board or the colours of the pictures on your wall.

The colour of light is measured on the Kelvin scale, which is actually a measure of temperature, which is why many light bulb manufacturers often refer to ‘colour temperature’ on the bulb packaging. The numbers you will see on the side of the packet indicates the colour of the light that the bulb will emit. Many people have become used to warm yellow light given out by the old incandescent lightbulb, which is measure at 2,700 on the Kelvin scale.

For reference candlelight is around 1,600K, midday sunlight is about 5,500K and sunset or sunrise lighting is around 2,500K. So the higher the Kelvin scale the more likely a stark white or bluey light the bulb will emit.

Find the best shape bulb 

The next thing to decide is the shape of the lightbulb that you want, there is a wide variety and different brands have a subtly different look and characteristics. 

The most common lightbulb shapes are:
Traditional, Spiral, Globe, Candle, Spot, Golf, Downlight and Stick. 

As with the fitting type if you are replacing a blown bulb, it's useful to either take the old one to the shop to match it to a new one or have it with you when you are ordering a replacement online so that you can match the specification and picture. 

As you would expect each shape of bulb provides a different spread and angle of light from the narrow beam of a spot light to the almost 360-degree spread of light of a globe bulb. While the perfect shape and spread of light is largely down to personal preference, make sure you consider how the lightbulb will look when it is switched off as well as on. As an example a large stick shape lightbulb may protrude from the top of your bedside lamp which you wouldn't want! 

Best quality for your needs

Now you are more informed and have made all of the key decisions to make the perfect lightbulb purchase. You know the fitting to look for, the shape of the bulb you want, the light colour and brightness you want and the brief benefits of the different types of lightbulbs available. So all that is left is to check where to get the best bulbs for your needs. The best bulbs brighten up quickly, provide a lot of light for a small amount of power and don't lose light over time! The worst don't last, don't match the kelvin or lumens stated on the packaging and will add to your energy bill. 

At discountelectrical.com we pride ourselves on offering our customers the very best price for quality products. We stock hundreds of lightbulbs from quality bulb manufacturers like Crompton Lamps and Energizer and if your not quite sure what your looking for or can't see it, please email the team at info@discountelectrical.com and we will be happy to assist you in your selection!