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With the development of technology, we have more and more new interesting devices and devices, and old and familiar ones acquire new functions and capabilities. For example, it has become fashionable to buy LED lamps. There are two significant reasons for this – their diverse design and economy. About what properties LED chandeliers for the home have, how to choose them and let’s talk further.
Features of LED chandeliers
All the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of this type of lighting devices are due to the fact that they use LEDs as light sources. It is they who determine their properties and capabilities.
Diverse design
An LED, even a powerful one, is a small crystal, a few millimeters in size, and it can produce a powerful luminous flux. Some crystals with a size of 3 * 3 mm can replace a not very powerful incandescent lamp. Another thing is that such crystals are expensive. But they, subject to operating conditions, can work for decades.
These properties – a significant luminous flux at a small size – expand the possibilities of design to infinity. When developing the design of all other lamps, designers have to come up with some kind of ceiling lamps, and quite large ones so that they can hide the light source.
When working with LEDs, designers have practically no restrictions – millimeter light sources can be placed in any order, quantity. A “plafond” is not required for them, since they are available with different dispersion angles. Even if you make a ceiling, the approach is mainly aesthetic, the technical requirements are minimal. In this regard, the style performance is very different – from the usual classics to advanced high-tech, minimalism, loft. You can find any style.
Adjustment options: brightness and glow temperature
Most lighting lamps can only give out light of a certain spectrum (color). Incandescent and halogen lamps give only white light, some other colors can only give out fluorescent, and even then not too much.
LEDs are designed in such a way that they can produce light of any color. This property is used in LED chandeliers with a control panel. They use three crystals at once as a light source – red, green and blue. By changing the brightness of the glow of each of the bottom, we get any color of the spectrum. That is, an LED chandelier for the home can glow not only with white light (with different shades), but also with blue, green, red, etc. Please note that not all models have this feature, but only some.
They have LED chandeliers for the home and one more feature – the brightness of the glow can be adjusted over a wide range. This possibility is implemented on the basis of incandescent lamps, for which special devices are used – dimmers. They lower / increase the voltage, on which the level of illumination of the lamps depends. To change the brightness of the light with a dimmer, you need to approach it (usually built into the switch) and turn the handle. With fluorescent or halogen lamps, even such a “focus” does not work, they cannot work at low voltage.
LEDs change the level of illumination in a wide range and this function can be implemented remotely – from the control panel. You can change the amount of light for both white and colored crystals. This function can be very convenient in nurseries and bedrooms – you can not turn off the light, but only dim it to acceptable values.
Power Options and Service Life
LEDs operate on a constant voltage of 12 V, while in the network we have 220 V variables. For direct connection to a household network, a voltage converter is built into lighting fixtures of this type, which rectifies and lowers the voltage to the required values. The service life of the LEDs depends on the quality of this converter – the more stable the power supply, the longer the LEDs will last.
In general, LEDs can work without a significant change in characteristics for 30-50 thousand hours. This is equivalent to 20-50 years of work. But this is only if the voltage is applied within the specified limits.
Unfortunately, the food in our networks is far from stable. There are sharp jumps both up and down. Such jumps adversely affect the life of the LEDs – they burn out, lose brightness. Since the LED chandelier is a far from cheap device, it makes sense to supply power through the stabilizer. This, of course, is an additional expense, but the stabilizer, by creating normal conditions for the LEDs, will significantly extend their service life.
Energy savings and low heat generation
LED lighting devices are characterized by increased efficiency – a lamp that consumes 15-20 W of electricity produces the same amount of light as a 100 W incandescent lamp. This is due to the fact that the LED most of the energy consumed is spent on the glow and only a small part of it is converted into heat. At the moment, these are the most energy efficient light sources.
The small amount of heat emitted by LED chandeliers for the home allows them to be used for stretch ceilings.
LED chandeliers for home: choice
When choosing an LED chandelier for your home, in addition to aesthetic criteria and dimensions, you need to keep track of some more technical points:
- Supply voltage. Most household LED chandeliers are connected directly to a 220 V network. But there are models that need to be connected through converters to a reduced DC voltage – 12 V or 24 V. This parameter must be indicated in the technical specifications.
- Illuminated area. We can use an ordinary chandelier with standard cartridges to illuminate rooms of different sizes – you can put lamps of different power. This does not work with LED chandeliers: the LEDs are soldered inside and have certain parameters. Therefore, when choosing, pay attention to what maximum area this particular lighting device can illuminate. It is desirable that your room was no more.
LED chandelier is designed to illuminate a certain area - Colorful temperature. This parameter is important for LED chandeliers without a remote control. LEDs can produce white light of different “temperatures” – warm, like an incandescent lamp, cold, like a fluorescent lamp. You need to decide which one you want and look for fixtures with suitable parameters.
- The degree of protection of the case. For residential premises, as well as for technical premises with normal operating conditions, you can ignore the degree of protection of the case. But if you choose a chandelier for a bathroom, bath, pool, etc., the body must have a safety class of at least IP44. This means that it is protected from dust and splashes, and is not afraid of high humidity.
- Guarantee period. This figure reflects the real state of affairs – how long the lamp will work without breakdowns and a decrease in the level of illumination. The longer the warranty period, the higher the quality of the lighting equipment in front of you.
These are the technical characteristics that must be monitored. They are even in the brief description of the product. In any case, they should be. If you did not find any data, it is better to look for something else. The quality of this one is unlikely to satisfy you.
Features of the choice of chandeliers with a control panel
LED chandeliers for home and office with remote control have their own characteristics. In addition to all the technical characteristics described above, you also need to check:
- What options does this model have? May be:
- Changing the brightness of the light.
- Color change.
- The ability to turn on the lamps in “portions” – some can burn, some do not.
There are LED chandeliers on suspensions, there are ceiling
- Remote control range. For small rooms, this is not so important, but for spacious ones – such as a kitchen-living room – it can even be very important.
- What power source does the remote control come from? It is better if these are ordinary batteries that are in any store.
Examine the control panel. For good manufacturers, it is made of good quality plastic, the buttons “walk” gently
Manufacturer
On the Russian market, there are LED chandeliers for home from China, European countries, there are also Russian options. You can tell them apart right away by the price. Chinese – the cheapest, European – the most expensive. Even those made in China.
Which ones are worth buying? European or proven Russian. They use high quality LEDs that will definitely last the warranty period. In addition, they support the warranty, that is, they repair or replace a device that has failed or has changed its parameters.
The whole problem is that outwardly a non-specialist cannot distinguish high-quality LEDs from low-quality ones. This is revealed during operation – they lose their brightness or even stop glowing. All hope for control in production, which rejects low-quality LEDs. Inexpensive Chinese chandeliers, most often, are assembled on these rejected LEDs. It is impossible to predict the duration or quality of their work. The exception is proven Chinese brands, but the price of their products is not far from European ones. So… there is essentially no choice.
Another problem with cheap LED chandeliers is a poor quality power converter. Quality conversion requires high-quality (read – expensive) components and professional assembly. All this increases the cost of the device. And not completely “aligned” alternating voltage quickly disables even good LEDs, not to mention defective ones.