Picking A Lightbulb, Made Easy

Life Kit

NPR

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Kids & Family, Education, Business

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2020

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

LED or incandescent? How many watts? What's a Kelvin? We help focus your lightbulb search to make the decision easy.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is NPR's Life Kit. I'm Jeff Brady. I've spent a lot of time in lightbulbiles recently
0:06.0	because I've been reporting on changes to energy efficiency regulations. And one thing I've noticed
0:11.5	is a lot of confused people holding an old light bulb and trying to find a new one just like it.
0:17.1	I'm looking for a bulb to go inside of my refrigerator. John Pinnick is at a Home Depot in suburban
0:22.8	Philadelphia. This is a 40 watt. This is a 40 watt. The bulb seems to be the same.
0:28.3	Only thing is I don't want dimmable. I'm not going to be dimming inside to refit your
0:33.8	rated so. Turns out that means it's able to be dim, not that it has to be. This confusion is the
0:39.8	result of a revolution in the lighting industry. The old energy hogging in Candescent light bulb is
0:45.6	going away. And new LED or light emitting diode bulbs are taking over. In this Life Kit episode,
0:53.2	we're going to talk about what you need to know about LEDs to avoid bad experiences.
0:58.8	You know, light that hurts your eyes or just makes you feel tired. And we're going to learn how to
1:04.2	get just the right light, which can be different depending on what room you're talking about.
1:11.9	There are really good reasons to switch to LEDs. Later we'll learn how using them can help
1:17.2	you sleep better. While they are a bit more expensive, they last a lot longer. So you'll change
1:22.8	bulbs less often. And they use a fraction of the energy old bulbs to. That's important for
1:28.9	addressing climate change. The energy department estimates switching to LED bulbs across the country
1:34.7	saves the amount of electricity produced by 44 large power plants. Interior designer Aaron
1:41.2	Shakura says that's good for your budget too. Here's the deal. You're going to save so much money
1:47.5	on your electric bill by transitioning from regular incandescence to LED bulbs. So that's the first
1:54.1	like no brainer. Aaron owns Shakura interiors in Chicago. And she knows how to use light to enhance
2:00.5	your space. She often talks about the role of light fixtures like this. And like that badass hat
2:06.4	that you put on right before you walk out the door or that beautiful piece of statement jewelry
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.