Building A New Home: Choose The Right Lightbulbs For Your New Lighting Fixtures
When you're planning for the lighting in your new home, you might want to also consider the type of light bulbs you're going to use. There used to be a time when you only had one choice for light bulbs. Now you have several different types of bulbs to choose from. Before you go out and buy new bulbs for all your light fixtures, make sure you're choosing the right type. Here's a brief description of various types of lighting choices you have.
Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
These little light bulbs aren't like the fluorescent bulbs they used to sell. For one thing, you no longer have to wait several minutes for them to warm up before they produce light. Another change is that they no longer buzz and flicker when you turn them on. Compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs as they're commonly called, work well in just about any type of lighting fixture. They are also extremely energy efficient. There are a couple of downsides to using CFLs. First, some of them contain small amounts of mercury. Second, they don't work well with dimmer or three-way switches.
LED Bulbs
LED bulbs work are about as energy efficient as CFL bulbs, and they last about as long. They also don't contain the mercury that you may find in CFL bulbs. Another plus to LED bulbs is that they work well with dimmer switches and in three-way lights. The downside to choosing LED bulbs is that they can be quite expensive. In fact, some LED bulbs cost about $40. While you will save money using LED bulbs, you might not save enough to offset the cost of the bulbs.
Halogen Incandescent Bulbs
The halogen incandescent bulbs are similar to the old incandescent bulbs that you're probably used to. They look similar to older bulbs, but they're more energy efficient than they used to be, which means they'll last longer than they used to. Like the LED bulbs, the HI bulbs work well with dimmer switches. They also work well in three-way lamps. The downside to the HI lights is that they burn much brighter than tradition incandescent bulbs, which means you'll want to keep them out of lights that are at eye level.
Now that you know about the different types of light bulbs that are available for you to choose from, you're ready to go out and pick the lighting for your new home. Get a hold of a contractor, such as from HomePro Handyman Services, for advice on what will work best in your home.
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