One Simple Trick that will Make your Home Cheaper & More Secure

Floodlights are ideal for enhancing the security of your home and making it look more welcoming when you arrive back after dark. The good news is that you can now get LED flood and security lights, keeping your home safe and secure at minimal cost, even when you leave them burning all night.

Keep your Home Safe and Secure

Your home contains all the things that matter to you, and installing outdoor lights in front it can act as an effective deterrent to stop would-be criminals from targeting your place.

If you’re worried about a glare on the road outside, you can now get low profile lights that are also IP66 waterproof. The 50 Watt Slimline LED security light can replace your old 250W outdoor light, and save you a significant amount in energy costs. With an expected lifespan of 45,000 hours, you won’t need to worry about replacing it anytime soon either. If you want to use less power to run it, this light is also available in 30W and 10W varieties.

A 120-degree beam angle ensures maximum illumination, for wider driveways and house fronts. You can also choose between warm and cool white light colours.

Home Entertaining Just Got a Little Easier

A sunset barbeque is the perfect way to end a summer weekend. While you may have needed to get your meat done before the sun went down a few years ago, having outdoor lights means you can now have your barbeque whenever you wish.

A Slimline 10 or 30W LED security light around your barbeque area can keep it well lit no matter how many people you have around, and ensure the festivities go on well after dark.

Lighting While You Work

If you are someone who needs functional light while you work, whether in one place or while on the move, there’s also a solution for you. The 27 Watt IP65 LED Working Light is available in both square and round shapes, providing essential lighting on par with a HID lamp, but with the efficiency levels of a LED.

With an IP67 rating and 1,755 lumen light output, this light provides excellent value and ensures that no dust or water can penetrate the structure. Its average lifespan is 50,000 hours, so once you have installed it, it is going to stay bright for at least the next five years.

With its 60-degree wide beam angle, the 27 Watt - IP65 LED Working Light is perfect for outdoor work areas and trucks.

Moreover, if you’re someone who is always on the move, you can get a 10W Portable, and Rechargeable LED Flood Light that goes with you. You can use it as a replacement for a traditional 60W light. With a light output of 600 lumens and a 120 beam angle, it’s ideal for all your work needs after dark.

Should I buy LED or CFL light bulbs?

We already know that incandescent light-bulbs are on the way out because they're incredibly wasteful, being better at producing heat than light. And most people know that LEDs have started replacing compact fluorescents (CFLs) and should become the next gold standard for producing light. But are LED bulbs truly better than CFLs? If so, by how much? To really know, it's not enough to just look at lumens-per-watt efficiency; you have to do a full life-cycle analysis to truly figure out which one comes out on top when everything is taken into account — including manufacturing, usage, transportation, how many bulbs are used over time for those that don't last as long, etc.
That's what the U.S. Department of Energy did in this very thorough analysis, and the agency's findings are interesting.
Graphic: U.S. Department of Energy
The graph above summarizes the result of their tests:
“The average life-cycle energy consumption of LED lamps and CFLs are similar, at approximately 3,900 MJ per 20 million lumen-hours. This is about one quarter of the incandescent lamp energy consumption — 15,100 MJ per functional unit. By 2015, if LED lamps meet their performance targets, their life-cycle energy is expected to decrease by approximately one half. In addition, based on this analysis, the 'use' phase of incandescent, compact fluorescent and LED lamps is the most energy intensive phase, on accounting for approximately 90 percent of total life-cycle energy. This is followed by the manufacturing and transport phases, respectively with transport representing less than one percent of life-cycle energy for all lamp types.”
Graphic: U.S. Department of Energy
So CFLs and LEDs are about the same on an LCA basis right now, though there are other reasons why one might want to pick LEDs. For example, LEDs are less fragile than CFLs, and they don't release mercury when broken, they last about three times longer, and they turn on more quickly.
But the real leap forward will come in about two years when next-generation LEDs come to market. We've written about one by Philips that gets 200 lumens/watt. These should be about twice as good as current LEDs and CFLs, allowing LEDs to finally declare a decisive victory over fluorescents.

Can I Buy Cheap LED Lights?

LED lighting is all the rage today.
I often speak with churches, bands and other venues who are looking into buying LED fixtures to either add to the functionality of their lighting system, make maintenance easier, replace old gear, be more efficient or any combination of the above.
But I also see a lot of venues who have made bad choices in LED fixtures and been disappointed.  If you look out into the LED market these days, you will see that it is flooded with lights in all price ranges- literally from $100 to $3000 and above!  Which is right for you?
So what do I need in an LED light?…and can I buy the cheap ones?
Well, the answer to that is many-faceted.
Yes, you can buy the cheapest thing you can find, but you may be disappointed.  I have seen churches buy LED lights from companies I’ve never heard of that don’t carry any warranty.
They’ve been disappointed when, 1 year down the road, some of the units are breaking and not as bright or consistent as they used to be.  Cheaper LED lights are often poorly designed and allow heat to dim the LED’s early in their life and poor electrical connections can cause units to fail prematurely.
Moving past the negatives, I do advise folks who are looking to get into the entry level to buy less expensive LED’s from reputable lighting companies who have been around for some time- such as Chauvet, American DJ and Elation.
These companies have great fixtures in the lower price range.  They may not be as cheap as others you’ve seen, but you do get what you pay for!
I read late last week of a cheaper, newer name of LED fixtures that is going out of business at the end of this year.  That makes it really hard if you need replacement parts in the future or want more matching lights, and it was a very popular brand among churches and other venues.
What To Consider When Buying LED Fixtures？
Here are a few things you need to know and consider before buying LED fixtures.

1. Consider the quality of light coming out of a RGB-only fixture.

These only have red, green and blue LED’s inside.  You may have seen some marketing material saying that these fixtures can put out “16 million colors”, and while that may be technically true, I bet you can only tell the difference between a few hundred of those at most.  You’re not going to get a good brown, amber, or white color out of these no matter how good they are.  They’ll make your flesh look pink if you try to use them as front light.  However, you can get a bunch of good colors for a great price, and these are great for lighting set pieces or walls.

1. Non-“tri”, “quad” or “homogenized” LED’s have individual red, green and blue LED”s that you can see.

So, when you mix up a yellow, purple, aqua or anything that’s not pure R, G or B, you’re going to see some of multiple colors when you look at the light.  This may be distracting if you’re using it as backlight, or anywhere that congregation members can see the front of the light fixture.  It also makes the colors mix a little bit better at very close ranges, but I don’t think it’s necessary to use tri-LED’s when lighting walls and scenery.

1. Cheaper fixtures will flicker when you videotape them or use IMAG to put the video on screen.

If you are shooting video, make sure that you buy fixtures that are guaranteed “flicker free” because this will be very distracting.  It’s not just a slight flicker- I have seen it myself!  Some units may look okay at full, but not when dimmed due to the way LED’s are dimmed in most fixtures.  If you have this problem with lights you already own, try running your units only at full.

1. Always buy lighting products that have a warranty of at least 90 days.

If the company making it won’t stand behind it, I don’t feel safe doing so either!

1. Think about the construction of the fixture vs. actual light output.

You don’t need something built like a tank if it’s just going to be installed in your church and not move often.  Those units are made for production companies.  There are cheaper units from many manufacturers that have the same LED’s in a cheaper, less durable unit than the flagship unit.

1. Keep in mind that different manufacturers use different LED’s in their fixtures.

Different LED’s produce slightly different colors.  Fixtures may also vary in color by each run, or batch, of fixture.  For the best color consistency, buy all of the LED fixtures you’ll use at once.
If this isn’t possible, buy in groups based on use- such as buying all of the units to light your backdrop at once, then later buying the ones you use for backlight, etc.  It is best to stick with one manufacturer for all of your LED fixtures for color consistency, but if you have to change, it’s not the end of the world.

1. If you’re buying more than 4-6 units, be sure to get a product demo!

Local dealers can demo and/or let you borrow products for FREE!  Otherwise, many manufacturers will ship you a fixture for just a deposit and the cost of shipping it back to them so that you can try it out.
You want to see how the light works with your current setup, if is is bright enough, how it works of skin tones, etc.
Recommended LED Fixtures
Buying cheaper LED lights may be the right move for you if  you don’t shoot video, and use them in the right application.
There is a right product for every application, and it sure doesn’t have to be the most expensive!  However, keep in mind that if you do shoot video, wash people in white/amber or need smooth fading, you may want to reconsider your price range.
Keep in mind, though, that for every application there is probably a more value-priced unit that you can buy from a good manufacturer.
Check out these value-priced LED fixtures as examples of the manufacturers that will stand by their word and deliver you a great product!
More Cheap LED Lights To Choose:

Factory high power high brightness 120W led bulb light