About LED lighting brightness and Lumen

2019-08-25

In traditional lighting, wattage is the standard measure of brightness. A higher wattage means a brighter bulb. LED lights are a brighter alternative to fluorescent、 incandescent and halogen bulbs, but require less watts to produce the same light. Instead, we measure the brightness of the LED in lumens.

Lumens (lm) is a measure of light output. The higher the lumen or luminous flux, the brighter the light. For LED lights, the standard light bulb starts at about 800 lm, but large commercial lamps such as shoe box street lights or stadium lights can reach 160,000 lm per luminaire!

Why are LEDs brighter and have fewer watts?

If you are not familiar with lumens, you can easily think that LEDs with fewer watts are less bright than traditional bulbs with higher wattage; however, this is not the case. As noted above, LED lamps require less energy to operate and produce the same or more light as a conventional bulb.Depending on the design, LED lamps have minimal heat output, which reduces their risk and allows the use of shatterproof materials for construction. When you power an LED, more energy is converted to light instead of heat. That's why you often see the wattages listed in the LED light specifications. For example, a standard 16W LED bulb is equivalent to a 100W incandescent bulb in terms of power and brightness!

What is the lighting effect?

You can find another common measurement method on the spec sheet of the LED lamp.This is different from the efficiency involved in the energy used. Efficacy is essentially the way you measure "successful success" in terms of brightness.It can be easily calculated by dividing by lumens per watt. For example, an outdoor LED floodlight with 10,000 lm and 100 W has a power of 100 lm / w.Typically, high output LEDs are 100lm / w or higher! Some commercial LED lights, such as LED tube lights, can have more than 130 lm / w.

How color temperature affects brightness?

The illumination color or colortemperature is measured in Kelvin (K). LED light source temperatures typically range from 2700K (hottest) to 6000K (coolest).Although the 2700K bulb produces a comfortable orange glow, the 6000K bulb emits crisp blue light, but the brightness is almost the same. Changing from 4000K to 5000K usually only increases the brightness by 20-60lm (of course, for the same fixture).This is useful for living and working spaces: you can customize the lighting color to achieve the same level of brightness as you want. If you want a more intimate atmosphere, you can always choose a dimmable LED and adjust the brightness to your liking.