Weighing up the pros and cons of different alternative products can often be a complex task, leaving those making the decision unsure about the best options.

However, the balance of pros and cons is pretty one-sided when it comes to choosing LED lights or incandescent ones, whether for commercial use or even just for the home. One article on the topic might suggest that were it a football match, LED FC would be giving their incandescent rivals a 5-1 thrashing.

According to Slash Gear, the only advantage incandescent lights have is that such bulbs are cheaper.

Even this advantage is little more than a scrambled 89^th-minute consolation goal. After all, one of the chief benefits of LED lights is that they are far more energy efficient, with far less energy turned into heat rather than light, so they bring cost savings in terms of energy usage.

LED bulbs also last longer, so you won’t have to pay to replace them so often, a rather convenient thing when you have a lot of them on commercial premises. And when these advantages of long life (meaning less waste) and energy efficiency are added together, LED lights are clearly the greener option. It’s 3-1 already.

You can add to that the fact that LED lights are also brighter, which is after all what lights are meant to be, while they are more versatile, not least when it comes to providing different colours – which may be a greater advantage in commercial settings than in the home.

If ever you needed further evidence of this, you may regularly read about local councils replacing their existing street lights with LED Installations for all the environmental and practical reasons above. Sefton Council in Merseyside has become the latest UK authority to do this.

LED lights may have higher upfront costs, but you get better lighting as a result and they pay for themselves many times over, giving you a huge overall advantage. They really do play incandescent bulbs off the park.