This presents some consumers with something of a puzzle when faced with a choice between a 13W LED bulb, a 15W CFL bulb, and an 18W Halogen bulb. Due to the overwhelming longevity and energy efficient benefits of installing LED lights throughout the home, LEDs have quickly taken over as the savvy choice of domestic bulb. However, bulbs have moved on, and this is no longer the case. Therefore, Watts naturally became an indication of brightness. The reason for the confusion is that traditional - and now largely obsolete - incandescent bulbs emitted light by means of passing electricity through a suspended filament that burned at a higher temperature and brightness in correlation to the greater amount of Watts being passed through it. So why did we ever use Watts to measure brightness in the first place? We didn’t. The greater the Wattage, the higher the power supply to the bulb (which technically says nothing about the expected brightness). What are Lumens? Firstly, Wattage measures power not brightness. But what are lumens? And why has Wattage been abandoned as the standard unit of brightness? How are we supposed to gauge which bulb to use? Luckily, we’ve put together a Lumens to Watts chart, because Lumens are the new measure of brightness and they’re here to stay. Changing from 4000K to 5000K will typically only increase brightness by 20-60lm, in the same fixture, of course.If you have recently purchased a light bulb, you may have noticed a switch on the packaging from Watts to Lumens. While a 2700K bulb will cast a cozy, orange glow and a 6000K bulb will emit a crisp, blue light, the brightness will nearly be the same. Good question! Lighting color, or light temperature, is measured in Kelvin (K). The average LED light temperatures range from 2700K (warmest) to 6000K (coolest). How does color temperature affect brightness? So as a rule of thumb, high output LEDs have an efficacy of 100lm/w or more while some commercial LED lights, such as LED Tubes, can feature efficacies of over 130lm/w. As an example, a LED Flood Light with 10,000lm and 100W has an efficacy of 100lm/w. This can easily be calculated by dividing the lumens/watt. Efficacy is essentially, how you could measure the “bang for your buck” when it comes to the brightness you are looking to achieve. For a mental image, a standard 16W A21 LED Bulb is an ideal replacement to an 100W incandescent bulb, and will be as bright, If not brighter!Īnother common measurement you might notice on specification sheets for LED lights is efficacy! And no, this is not the same as efficiency, which refers to the amount of energy used. Also, when you provide power to an LED light, more energy is converted to light rather than heat which is why you will often see wattage equivalency listed on the specifications for LED lights. Created by design, the LED light has a minimal heat output, which would place them as less hazardous and allow construction of the bulbs to include shatterproof materials. Without a good knowledge of lumens, it could be safe to assume that an LED having fewer watts would be less bright than a traditional bulb that has higher wattages however, that is most certainly not the case! As previously mentioned above, a LED light requires way less energy to operate and produce the same, if not more light than a traditional bulb. Why are LEDs brighter with less wattage you ask? To put this into perspective, a standard household LED Bulb has an average lumen 800lm, while a large commercial fixture, such LED Shoe Boxes or Stadium Lights, can reach 160,000lm per fixture! What are lumens? Glad you asked! Lumens (lm) are a measurement of light output! This would mean that the higher the lumens, the higher the brightness of LED lights is going to appear. Although we all know LED lights are a brighter replacement for fluorescent, incandescent, and halogen bulbs, and they require far fewer watts to produce that brighter light, we measure the brightness of LED lights in lumens. In traditional lighting knowledge, wattage is the standard measure of brightness for most, with higher wattage portraying a brighter bulb.
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