When you purchase light bulbs, you will often finds that the wattage of the bulb is no longer the measurement that you use to determine the brightness of that particuler bulb. Wattage is actualy a measurement of the amounts of electricity that the bulb will consume, but does not indicate the brightness of the bulb. The measurement of the brightness of the bulb is actually the measurement of the lumens that the bulb produce.
Therefore, you should use lumens to determine how bright a bulb will be, but use wattage to determine how much electricity the bulb will use. Because not all bulb are created the same, however, you must look at the brightness of the bulb, as measured in lumens, to ensure that a room will be bright enough. The efficacy of the bulb measures the efficiency of the bulbs produces light with little energy consumption.
How to Choose the Right Light Bulb
The efficacy of the bulb is the amount of lumens that the bulb produce per watt of electricity that it consumes. LED bulbs have high efficacy; they produce a great amounts of lumens while using little electricity. Incandescent bulbs, however, have low efficacy; they require a great amount of electricity to produce the amount of light that an LED bulb will produce with a fraction of the electricity.
Thus, it is possible to have the same brightness in the room with either type of bulb, but the LED bulb will use more less electricity to achieve that same level of brightness in the area. When you begin to consider how to best light a given room, you may want to avoid using a single source of light in the center of the ceiling. Using only one source of light in the center of the room may result in the center of the room being too bright while the corners of the room is too dark.
To avoid this issue, it is better to use different types of lighting within the room. Ambient lighting is used for lighting the entire room. Task lighting is used for specific activity within the room, such as reading.
Accent lighting is used to highlight specific objects within the room. While you may use an infographic to determine the amount of lumens that your room should have, there should be many lights of that lumen measurement distributed throughout the room to ensure that the brightness is even throughout the area. Another measurement for bulbs is not the brightness of the bulb, but rather the color of the bulb.
Color temperature for bulbs are measured in Kelvin. A low Kelvin measurement will produce a warm, amber light, while a high Kelvin measurement will produce a cool, blue light. For areas in the house where people may be resting, such as bedrooms, you may opt for a higher Kelvin measurement for its relaxing qualities.
In areas where people may want to remain alert, such as offices, you may want to use a higher Kelvin measurement to help maintain alertness. To determine the amount of light that is required in a given room, you can use the foot candle method for calculating the required lumens. To calculate the lumens for the room, multiply the square footage of the room by the amount of light intensity required for the activity that will take place in that room.
For instance, you will need more higher light intensity for a vanity mirror than for a hallway. The color of the walls in the room will impact the amount of lumens that is required in the room. If the color of the walls is dark, they will absorb the light; thus, you will need more lumens to brighten the area.
Additionally, if the ceilings in the room is high, the light will dissipate throughout the large area; thus, you will also need to purchase more lumens for the room.