Choosing the right LED lighting
General LED Lighting
The Design
1. This factor even can be used for any product. Good design is private designs with high-tech structure planning, high level professional design will make the light working better and longer, of course also will protect the light very well. This factor also tell us why the low price LED light has such bigger difference from high level LED lighting fixture, no matter the appearance, heat dissipation, structure planning sides, or the design technology patents, public model lamp all lose to high level professional design one.
Light Source
2. Mostly we choose the international famous brand LEDs, like CREE, Bridgelux, Hongli, etc. Quality depends on the cost!
Power Supply
3. Most LED lights die because their power supply can’t working as long as LED. For this situation, you just need change the driver of this lamp, it will work again. Driver from MEANWELL, Philips, Osram etc. is the first choice. Bad LED drivers are unstable and with low efficiency, all of these factors will cut down the working life of LED, too.
Wire Quality
4. For outdoor lighting fixtures, its outlet wire quality is also a VERY IMPORTANT point, outdoor environment with more force majeure. Like flood lights working in North American countries. During the winter, the weather over there is very very cold, temperature is dozens of degrees below zero. So, for this situation the wire (even the power supply) of LED outdoor flood light at least need add an extra cold resistance rating.
Company Reputation
5. The company that makes the lights, you need check if the company is professional or not, has how many years experience in this industry. And they are producing all kinds of lights, or only outdoor design led lighting fixtures, or just few kinds indoor/outdoor LED lamp.
Make sure the Lighting is Suitable
6. There is a very important step, but it be ignored by people frequently when they purchasing LED high power lights. That is you need make sure and make sure again, does this LED lighting fixture, which you are going to buy is perfect for/suit to your application, will it working as well as you wished. So, the Dialux come out for help you figure out does the outdoor/indoor LED lighting fixture will work or not, and assist you with the correct wattage, beam angle, size etc.
General Guidelines to follow
Look at the product packaging and labels
The packaging of high-quality lights made by well-established brands will be flawless, with perfect printing and good materials. The labels contain all the necessary information like rated voltage, wattage, colour temperature, brightness in lumens, and even years of warranty. On the other hand, makers of the low-quality bulbs rarely invest in packaging, so the materials will be cheap, the printings may not be clear, labels may not include all the needed info, and the packaging in whole will be poor.
Check the working temperature
Before buying LED Strip Lighting check its temperature at work. The temperature of high-quality LED tape doesn’t noticeably change during the work process, the heating is even throughout the length of a strip. If these conditions are not met, the light won’t last long.
Know the brightness of LED lights
Traditionally we estimate the brightness of a light bulb depending on its wattage. Well, it doesn’t work with LED lights. Look for the brightness value (specified in lumens) usually marked on the packaging. If there’s no brightness value on the packaging, ask salesman about it. For example, 800 lumens LED light equals 60W incandescent bulb.
The LED chip manufacturer
The quality of LED light depends on a LED chip. The best chips are made by the USA and Japan based manufacturers (such as Cree, Nichia, Toyota Gosei), yet in these latter days some of the largest Chinese and Korean companies (Epistar, San’an Opto, Seoul Viosys, ETi, TongFang) also produce good-quality LEDs. The material of the chip as well as its size makes the main difference. Larger chips are brighter and more stable, they live longer, but obviously are more expensive.
Check for the colour temperature of LED lights
The colour temperature is specified in units of Kelvin (K). Opt for the lights with higher colour temperature (over 5000K) if you need the cool bluish white light, and if you prefer warm yellowish illumination – choose low colour temperatures (2700-3000K). To determine the quality of LED lights, switch on several bulbs with the same colour temperature at the same time. Good-quality bulbs will emit the light of the same colour, while low-quality products will give the light that can slightly differ in colour.
Colour accuracy of the LED lights
Colour accuracy, or colour rendering index, is also one of the factors to consider when shopping for quality LED lighting. The bulb with higher CRI reveals colours more realistically. The best CRI of 100 have incandescent bulbs, while LEDs have CRI just about 80 (some best models have 90). This factor will improve with time as technology is advancing each year, but now try to look for LEDs with the highest CRI available. This characteristic is rarely specified on the packaging, so you’ll have to ask salesman or search online for it.
Courtesy - Nick Syzmanski, LED Panel Depot