Everything You Wanted To Know About Lumens And Watts

With the push for LED lighting, there is a lot to take into consideration now for lighting levels. One of the biggest arguments is a light Wattage versus the Lumens and determining brightness.

People usually make mistake that purchasing LED lights based on its power. They assume, incorrectly, that the higher the power, the brighter the light. Low power and high brightness are two features of LED lights, so the power should not be the only basis for choosing LED lights. Therefore, we should not only pay attention to the power of lights but also whether the brightness (light output) can fit your requirement and its environmental protection function.

Power≠Brightness

Most people only check power when they purchase LED lights, they think big power brings high brightness, actually, the power means power dissipation, not brightness. The most merit of LED light is its high lighting effect, which signifies the energy saving.

What does a lumen mean?

Lumen is a unit of luminous flux relating to the luminance of a luminaire. The rate of light energy emitted by a light source or the rate at which light flows. The higher the lumen rating, the brighter the lamp will appear; and the lower the lumen rating, the dimmer it will appear.  Essentially, looking at lumens lets you buy the amount of light you want.

What does a Watt mean?

Wattage isn’t a measure of brightness but of how much electricity (or energy) it takes to achieve a level of brightness or luminosity. There are different lumen to watt ratios for LEDs, fluorescents, halogens, and incandescents.

The Wattage of the light is the amount of energy it takes to produce a certain amount of light. The higher the wattage, the brighter the light, but also the more power it uses. The efficiency of this system was introduced using incandescent lamps.

Power: High power not indicates the high brightness.

Lumen: A true parameter represents for LED lights brightness. The higher lumen value brings higher brightness.

The out package of LED lights in the market are marked LUMEN, this is a vital parameter to judge whether a LED light is deserve to purchase. We should change the old concept of buying LED lights, check lumen value instead of power as your purchasing standard.

When purchase LED lights in the future, do not only look at power and ignore lumen.  Others parameters such as current, voltage, luminous flux, lighting effect, and color are also contributing.

Hope these suggestions for LED lights purchasing above helps.