Informative Blogs

Do LED light bulbs get hot? Check out our answer at LEDSmiths 0

In short, yes LED light and LED bulbs do emit a small amount of heat, this is understandable that in order to create light you currently do need heat as part of the equation. There isn't currently a perfect energy transfer from electricity to light yet, but that isn't to say that the amount of heat emitted from LED bulbs is huge.

If we were to hazzard a guess, the heat given off a standard GLS 60W incandescent bulb would be around 100-150° celcius, enough to give your fingers a nasty burn. Touching a 60W halogen capsule is considerably more (mainly because of the distance from the filament to the glass is smaller) and that's in the region of 200-300° celcius. 60W equivalent LED GLS bulbs after being on for a number of hours would be closer to 40-60° celcius depending on the make and model of the LED bulb.

Now that's a considerable difference from old style bulbs to LED bulbs.

Apr 30, 2019
Nicholas Smith

How Using The Correct Light Bulb Can Change The Way a Room Looks 0

One of the first houses that we moved into looked pretty miserable from the photos and even visiting it, it looked dark and it was touch and go whether we would choose this house to move into. In the end we went for it because my partner in crime fell in love with the design of the open plan kitchen and so we decided that this was the one for us....Read more

Aug 25, 2017
Nicholas Smith

Why You Shouldn't Wait To Switch Your LED Light Bulbs 0

Are you that person that looks up at your ceiling lights and sees a mish mash combination of old style energy saving bulbs and old style incandescent filaments and a spattering of new LED light bulbs? Perhaps you don't have any LED light bulbs yet and you are waiting for the old lights to blow before you switch them over to the new LEDs.

Well if you can't be bothered to read the rest, to cut a long story short, switch everything now.

Why should I do that, it will cost me money .... Read on to find out.

Aug 25, 2017
Nicholas Smith

What does LED stand for? 0

The acronym LED stands for 'Light Emitting Diode'. Nowadays it is more commonly used to describe a lamp that contains multiple LED chips and is a very energy saving light bulb. So if someone told you that their house was now full of LEDs, they don't just have a few LED chips, they have a house full of LED light bulbs that are rated at A, A+ or A++ saving a lot of money compared to the older style incandescent light bulbs or halogen bulbs.

To put it in perspective, this is an Light Emitting Diode Chip:

This is an typical cheap LED light bulb (GU10) with lots of LED chips visible:

Nowadays the LED technology has moved on considerably from these and the LEDSmiths website contains many of the latest LED bulbs:


The Energizer Glass LED GU10 - Available in Dimmable	The new Philips Dimmable Filament Golf Ball LED

As you can see with these new LEDs you really can't tell much difference between the old light bulbs and the new ones except these newer LEDs can save up to 80% off your electricity bill.

May 16, 2017
Nicholas Smith

What's a Watt? 0

A Watt is the unit of Power. It listed on every single electrical device you have around the house or the office and it signifies how much power will be used by that electrical device. For example, the kettle in my kitchen is from NEXT and although fits beautifully in our kitchen is fairly poor with it's energy efficiency and apparently uses between 1450W and 1750W when turned on, the list is endless of the appliances now around the home that consume major amounts of electricity. One thing that you may not appreciate is that although light bulbs may seem like low wattage in comparison to other power guzzlers in the office or home, they soon add up to be the single biggest contributor to the energy consumption in the home. This is due to the fact that they may be on most of the time.

Consider my home, it is a 3 bedroom semi and has the following:

Kitchen:

5 x ceiling fitted GU10s at 50W

4 x undercabinet halogen G4 bulbs at 10W

5 x candle lamps incandescent light bulbs at 40W

Lounge:

5 x G9s in a ceiling chandelier at 40W

Hallway:

6 x candle lamps incandescent bulbs at 40W

Bathroom:

6 x MR16 low voltage bulbs at 35W

Bedroom 1:

12 x G4 low voltage bulbs at 10W

2 x golfball table lamp bulbs at 40W

Bedroom 2:

5 x golfball free standing lamp lights at 25W

1 x GLS at 60W

Bedroom 3:

1 x GLS at 60W

If all the lights were on in the house at any one time, the Wattage would be a massive total of 1585W. When you think how easy it is to leave lights on, this really starts hitting the wallet.

Every 24 hours that all these lights are left on, you are paying £5.32 (assuming the cost of electricity is £0.14).

The advantage of working in light bulbs is that I know the above and I know how much I can save. So I changed all of the bulbs over to LEDs and see below how much I saved:

Kitchen:

5 x ceiling fitted GU10s at 50W - Moved to 5W LED GU10s

4 x undercabinet halogen G4 bulbs at 10W - Moved to 1.5W LED G4s

5 x candle lamps incandescent light bulbs at 40W - Moved to 4W LED Candles

Lounge:

5 x G9s in a ceiling chandelier at 40W - Moved to 2.5W LED G9s (took a light level drop as there wasn't a 40W equivalent available)

Hallway:

6 x candle lamps incandescent bulbs at 40W - Moved to 4W LED Candles

Bathroom:

6 x MR16 low voltage bulbs at 35W - Moved to 5W LED MR16 Bulbs

Bedroom 1:

12 x G4 low voltage bulbs at 10W - Moved to 1.5W LED G4s

2 x golfball table lamp bulbs at 40W - Moved to 4W LED Golfball bulbs

Bedroom 2:

5 x golfball free standing lamp lights at 25W - Moved to 3W LED Golfball bulbs

1 x GLS at 60W - Moved to 10.5W LED GLS lamps

Bedroom 3:

1 x GLS at 60W - Moved to 10.5W LED GLS lamps

This works out to be a total of 179.5W throughout the house. This is 1405.5W less that the original power consumption. So now if I leave the lights on for 24 hours, it only costs me £0.60.

It is simply a no brainer, and if you want us to do the calculations for you, or work out how much you could save then get in touch or use our unique calculator on every product page to see how much the LED could save you or when it would payback on the purchase price.

We also offer a unique service that we will come around to your home or office and do an energy audit to work out how many watts you are using and we will tell you how much you could save by switching to LED and we will even be able to provide you a quote for changing all your bulbs to LED on the spot and even give them to you there and then.

That is what we call the LEDSmiths Service.

IMAGE COURTESY OF 'KROMKRATHOG' AT FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET

Mar 21, 2016
Nicholas Smith

Why should I buy my LEDs Online? 0

What LED should I choose?

LEDs are hard. Hard to understand. Hard to work out what you need. Hard to get the perfect one. Getting the right LED could completely change the way your home or office looks and can really save you loads of money in the long run.

So why should you buy your LED bulbs online? Well the answer is simple, if you buy them online from a specialist online LED retailer like LEDSmiths.com then you are guaranteed to get the best advice and service from a supplier that focuses on nothing else but LEDs.

I mean you could go to your local supermarket and pick up your LEDs, but lets face the facts, just because they have LEDs in the supermarket doesn't mean you should pick them up at the supermarket. If you popped into your local supermarket then do you think you could flag down a helper to assist you in getting the right bulb? I shop in most of the major supermarkets, sometimes whichever is closest to me to pick up bits and bobs, and I'm that sadcase that checks out the offering in the light bulb aisle. Almost every time I've walked past the section there is always a group of people trying to work out what they need. It isn't limited to the supermarket, it is the same in DIY stores and other hardware shops, LEDs are a difficult business and it is fortunate that you can come to LEDSmiths and give us a call to assist you in getting it right. I used to work for a major UK based manufacturer of light bulbs, including LEDs and the number of phone calls there were from the wholesalers or electricians or contractors that didn't know anything about LEDs and needed some help was astounding.

The best part about buying on the Internet from an online LED retailer like LEDSmiths is that you will be able to buy the bulbs at the best prices and and know that you are getting a great deal because on every product page is a calculator that you can pop in the hours you expect to be using the bulb and it works out when you start getting payback from using your new LED light bulbs. Can you name a supermarket that does that? So head onto the product pages and pick up a great deal now.