LED PAR Lights
LED PAR Lights are replacement lighting for the common incandescent or halogen Par Lamp. These lamps are commonly found in home and offices, and are typically set in fixtures such as recessed cans or track lighting. What homeowners and companies don't realize is the amount of energy consumed and heat produced from standard incandescent and halogen PAR lamps. One can typically replace a 65W Incandescent PAR Lamp with a 12W LED PAR Lamp. This means that you could replace 1 incandescent PAR lamp with 5 LED PAR Lamps. In layman terms, this means that that you could reduce energy consumption by 80%. Not only that, heat generated by an incandescent PAR lamp far exceeds heat generated by a LED PAR Lamp. In the summer, this equates to additional air conditioning to offset the generated heat.
PAR Lamps defined
PAR is an acronym for parabolic aluminized reflector lamp. PAR's are usually defined by the designation word PAR followed by a number. The number represents a universally accepted size. The higher the number, the greater the width of the bulb. Typical PAR lamps found in a home are PAR 20's, PAR 30's and PAR 38's.
| PAR Designation | Nominal Diameter in Inches | Nominal Diameter in Millimeters) |
|---|
| PAR38 | 4.75 | 120 |
| PAR30 | 3.75 | 95 |
| PAR20 | 2.5 | 65 |
The Anatomy of a LED PAR LAMP
The majority of LED Lights contain 3 essential components. 1. The LED's. 2. The Driver. 3. A heat sink. As you would expect, LED's are the light source and are easily identifiable on the Lamp. The driver is embedded inside the lamp and converts AC into DC that powers the LED's. The drivers perform other functions, like protecting agaist voltage supply issues and over heating. Others may include optional circuitry that allows you to dim the LED bulb.
The third and final component is the heat sink. Arguably, LED PAR Lamps display their heat sinks possibly more than any other LED Bulb. In fact, you could say that a LED PAR Lamp is a heat sink that holds LED's and the driver. Heat sinks are critical for LED's, it keeps the LED's and the drivers cool and helps extend the life of the product. Without it, LED's would have a very short life.
Things to consider when purchasing LED PAR Bulbs
1. Lumens: generally speaking, the more lumens, the more light.
2. Color Temperature: Also know as Kelvin, the lower the number, the warmer the color temperature. A warm bulb will have a more yellowish hue, a cool lamp will be more white and a very cool lamp will be a white-ish blue. For home use, lower kelvins are better (2700-3200K), for office us, 5000K is a good choice.
3. Lensing: lensing is usually described in angles, from about 15 degrees to typically 60 degrees. Lower numbers tend to act like a spot light, higher numbers tend to act like a flood. However, the higer the ceiling height, it is advisable to select a lower lens angle to narrow down the beam.
4. Certifications: UL and ETL Listed are both good certifications. Both are quality certifications and means that the light has passed US based testing requirements.