LED panel lights are a great lighting choice for many reasons, not least because they’re both brilliant and simple.
But what are LED panel lights? How do they work? And where is best to use them?
Let’s take a look.
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What are LED Panel Lights?
LED panel lights are flat lights that look very similar in appearance to regular ceiling panels, however they have built-in LED lights.
They are designed to provide a uniform and bright light output, making them a popular choice for lighting larger areas where you would you usually find ceiling tiles, such as in an office.
We have LED panel lights in our office, and they’re great. They’re regularly spaced out throughout the office, and they provide a great lighting that doesn’t overly light just one part of the room, as you’d normally get if you’re the unlucky one sat under a regular ceiling light or pendant light!
How Do LED Panel Lights Work?
To explain how LED panel lights work, let’s breakdown what they’re made of.
You’ll find a lot of guides online going through every material and layer involved in these lights, but for the purposes of this guide we’ll keep things simple.
So, in simple terms, LED panel lights have a layer of LED lights, a diffusing layer, and then the frame containing it all.
Again, you might also have a guide plate, a back plate, reflective paper and so on, but we won’t go into these.
LED panel lights work by shining LED light modules through a diffusing layer, which nicely distributes the light across its full surface area.
You can technically have panel lights without the diffusing layer, but you’d have light directly beneath where the LED modules are and then dark space between each, which would look horrible!
Are LED Panel Lights Any Good?
If you couldn’t tell from my tone already, LED panel lights are great. Not only do they provide just the right level of lighting, but they’re also power efficient, long-lasting, and easy to maintain.
Let’s take a look at each.
LED Panel Lights are Efficient
As the name suggests, LED panel lights use LED lights.
This makes them very efficient, using a small fraction of the electricity traditional incandescent light bulbs use to produce the same level of light.
To give you an idea of just how efficient they are, according to ledvanceus.com, to produce ~1500 lumens of light an incandescent bulb would need 100 watts of electricity; an LED bulb only needs 12-14 watts.
LED Panel Lights Last a Long Time
As well as being very efficient, LED modules (and by extension LED panel lights) last a ridiculously long time – about 40,000 – 50,000 hours.
This not only means you’ll be saving money by not having to replace them as often, but it also means you can set it and forget it – they’ll still be working!
LED Panel Lights Have Lower Maintenance Costs Than Traditional Lighting
Lastly, because of both the high efficiency and the long-lasting nature of LED panel lights, they typically have lower maintenance costs than traditional lighting.
Incandescent light bulbs tend to last for about ~1,000 hours before they need to be replaced. Granted this is a simple task to do, but it means buying a new bulb, and more hassle if your ceiling is a high one.
Whereas with LED panel lights, you don’t have to worry about this.
Where Should you Use LED Panel Lights?
LED Panel Lights in an Office
Office lighting is on pretty much all day, every day.
So, with LED panel lights being so efficient, cost-effective to run and easy to maintain, you can see why they make a great choice for an office.
Also, offices tend to be quite big and need quite a lot of lighting, making powerful panel lights a great choice.
As well, most offices have ceiling panels, meaning panel lights are super simple to install (more on this here).
LED Panel Lights in the Kitchen
LED panel lights are great above kitchen islands, as the diffused light nicely lights up all of the island, not just the bits directly underneath the bulb.
They’re not only confined to kitchen islands though – they provide the same beautiful diffused light anywhere in the kitchen.
Also, because you can have them flush against the ceiling, they give you more space vs lights like pendant lights and chandeliers that dangle down from the ceiling.
LED Panel Lights in the Living Room/Lounge
LED panel lights are also great in the living room and lounge areas.
Living rooms and/or lounges usually have recessed lights in them – LED panel lights are pretty much the same, only they’re larger and so can provide much more light.
You also get the added advantage that you don’t have to make 10 holes in your ceiling, one for each recessed light. Instead, it’s just one large hole for the one LED panel light you’d need.
How to Install LED Panel Lights
For mounted LED panel lights (aka the LED panel lights we’ve been talking about that mount straight into the ceiling), installation is very simple.
Firstly, remove the ceiling panel you will be replacing with the LED panel light. If you are installing the panel light onto a non-panelled ceiling, you will need to cut out a hole in your ceiling that the panel light will go into.
Once you’ve done this, it’s simply a case of placing the LED panel into the gap, connecting it to the mains, and then fastening the panel to the ceiling.
As always though, if you have any queries or concerns, it’s best to hire an electrician.
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[…] or materials that diffuse light create a homely feel (the same goes for a diffuser on LED panel lights or normal LED strip lights), while bulbs with warmer color temperatures (2,700-3,000 Kelvin) are […]