Improving our homes, lives and bank balances is definitely up there for most of our lists, am I right? I know that those things are up there for me definitely and if you know me, you’ll know that I’m always trying to change things in my house to be more eco-friendly and money saving. I popped up a post a few months ago about five easy eco-friendly things that you can introduce to your life at home that can help you save money and improve things for the environment. Today I have a sponsored post with loads of awesome information from the UK’s leading LED lighting specialists, INUI®.
There are loads of energy and money saving benefits of LED Lighting that are great for helping the environment and our health that the team at INUI® have kindly provided me with so I wanted to share them as it’s definitely something I’d consider for our home. I’m pretty sure we already choose LED lightbulbs if one of them blows because automatically I think they’re better for energy saving but here are some hard facts about this bright idea!
Energy saving benefits
1. LED lightbulbs can be around 6-7 times more energy efficient than conventional incandescent bulbs and therefore they can cut your energy use by up to 80%.
2. LED bulbs pass electrons through a semiconductor and subsequently have no filament to wear out meaning that they don’t get as hot. Traditional lighting loses almost 95% of its energy simply by producing heat. With LEDs this figure drops to just 5%.
3. Overall, LED bulbs can last 25 up to times longer than traditional bulbs. That’s a lifetime of more than three years if they run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This makes for a longer lifespan and makes them incredibly durable, meaning maintenance costs are next to nothing and you won’t be changing bulbs every few months. Which is perfect because I can never find the step ladder…
Environmental benefits
4. LEDs have a much smaller environmental impact than incandescent bulbs – an impressive four times less in fact. They are also pollutant-free with no mercury, lead, glass or toxic materials making them 100% more recyclable, leading to a reduction in toxic chemicals deposited into our globe’s landfills and reducing waste costs.
5. LEDs are also helping to tackle light pollution. It’s in no way a solution but LEDs are certainly the safer option when it comes to lighting the outdoors. A lot of our outdoor lighting is inefficient, overly bright, poorly targeted and improperly shielded, resulting in huge amounts of it wasted and turning into skyglow. LEDs are easy to focus in a single direction, meaning light can be shielded and directed into target areas and only at times when it is truly needed.
Money saving benefits
6. LED lighting has the potential to reduce lighting costs by an amazing 90%. Use INUI’s LED lighting calculator to work out just how much you could save on your energy bills.
Health benefits
7. LEDs can help to balance our 24 hour internal clock that runs in the background of our brain, differentiating between night and day and sleepiness and alertness. This is called our circadian rhythm, and lighting with certain blue wavelengths such as LEDs are known to mimic the stimulus provided by natural light to promote the health of this process. Many forms of artificial lighting increase the occurrence of headaches and migraines, largely down to their tendency to flicker.
8. LEDs are the closest alternative to natural light which therefore means that they can in turn decrease stress and anxiety. Humans naturally thrive in sunlight and are more likely to experience negative behaviour and mood changes when lighting doesn’t mimic that of natural environments. LEDs solve this problem, keeping us happy, awake and alert. In fact, the ‘waking up’ effect of the blue light found in LEDs can actually make you more alert than coffee. According to a study by scientists at Mid Sweden University, people exposed to blue light for an hour performed better on reaction tests than those who had drank three coffees! Which is why we shouldn’t be on our phones in bed – it disrupts our sleep a lot.
Interesting, huh? I’m 100% making sure that all of my bulbs are LED from now on. What do you think?
This is a sponsored post.
