LED lighting or traditional bulbs: what the real difference is

Which fittings are common in Estonian homes

Two fitting types cover most of what you will meet in Tallinn flats and houses. E27 is the standard screw fitting found in pendant lights, table lamps and many ceiling fixtures, and it is the one most people grew up calling a normal light bulb socket. E14, the smaller screw fitting, turns up in decorative fixtures and some wall lights.

GU10 is the twist-lock fitting used in recessed ceiling spotlights, the kind found in kitchens, bathrooms and hallways in newer developments and renovated flats. It was originally a halogen fitting but almost all GU10 bulbs sold today are LED, so replacing one is usually a direct swap.

Knowing which fitting you have matters before you buy anything, because a bulb with the wrong base simply will not go in. If you are replacing a whole fixture rather than just a bulb, our light fitting installation service, from 40 € per job, takes that decision off your hands.

LED versus halogen: heat and energy use

Halogen bulbs work by heating a filament, and a large share of the electricity they use turns into heat rather than light. Touch one that has been on for a few minutes and you will feel it. LED bulbs produce light differently and run noticeably cooler, though the driver electronics inside still generate some heat that needs to escape through the fitting.

The practical effect is twofold. LED bulbs use less electricity for the same brightness, and they put less heat into the room and into the fixture itself, which matters in enclosed fittings, small lampshades or bathroom spotlights where heat has nowhere to go. Over the life of the bulb, an LED costs less to run, even though we will not put a figure on exactly how much.

Halogen bulbs also have a shorter working life than LED, so replacing them happens more often, and each replacement is a small task rather than a large one. If you are re-fitting several rooms at once, that adds up to more ladder time and more trips to the shop.

Does LED work with your existing dimmer

This is the point where people run into trouble. Old dimmer switches were built for the electrical load of incandescent or halogen bulbs, and many LED bulbs draw far less power than the dimmer was designed to handle. The result can be flickering, buzzing, a bulb that will not dim below a certain level, or one that will not turn on at low settings at all.

Dimmable LED bulbs exist and work well, but they need a dimmer switch rated for LED loads, not just any dimmer that happens to be already on the wall. Some older Estonian flats still have dimmers fitted decades ago for incandescent lighting, and these are the ones most likely to misbehave with new LED bulbs.

If you are not sure whether your dimmer is compatible, the safest route is to check the dimmer's rating before buying bulbs, or replace the dimmer at the same time as the light source. That is electrical work in the proper sense, and we price it from 49 € per hour.

Where halogen or incandescent still make sense

LED is the right default for nearly all everyday lighting now, but there are a few situations where halogen or an old-style bulb still earns its place. Some dimmer circuits, ovens, and certain decorative fixtures are built specifically around a halogen or incandescent bulb's heat and dimming behaviour, and swapping the bulb type alone will not always give a good result.

Halogen also still has a slight edge in colour rendering for people who are particular about how warm tones or fabrics look under a light, though the difference has narrowed a great deal as LED quality has improved. For most rooms, most people would not notice it.

If you have a specific fixture that seems to need a halogen bulb to work properly, that is usually a sign the fixture or its dimmer predates LED and needs attention at that level, not a reason to keep buying halogen bulbs indefinitely.

• Enclosed oven and appliance lighting, which is often designed around a heat-rated bulb
• Older dimmer circuits not yet upgraded for LED loads
• Decorative fixtures where the fitting's heat tolerance was matched to halogen
• Situations where colour rendering under warm light matters and has not been tested with LED

What we would fit in a typical Tallinn flat

For most rooms in a Tallinn flat or house, LED is the sensible default: lower running cost, less heat, and a longer working life that means fewer trips up a ladder. In kitchens and bathrooms with GU10 spotlights this is now almost the only sensible choice, since GU10 halogen bulbs have largely disappeared from shelves anyway.

The one place worth checking before you buy is any fixture on a dimmer switch, especially in older flats where the dimmer itself may be the limiting factor rather than the bulb. Test one LED bulb before replacing a whole run of spotlights, so you are not left with six bulbs that flicker.

If you are renovating and replacing fixtures room by room, it is often worth doing the light fittings and the switches together, so the bulb, the fitting and the dimmer are all matched from the start rather than fixed one at a time as problems appear.