Lumens, it is the unit of brightness. It is used to measure the intensity of light that you get from any light source like a bulb. Remember lumen is the unit of a bulb’s brightness, not the watt, which is a unit of energy.
To know how much light are you getting from a bulb, use and refer to lumens only. Modern-day LED and efficient lighting have low wattage but higher lumens than their conventional counterparts. Whenever you want to buy a light source, buy it in lumens not watts.
If you are looking to replace your old bulbs, try to replace a 100-watt incandescent bulb with a 1600 lumens energy-efficient light source.
How much Light are you getting from an Incandescent Bulb?
The oldest among bulbs is the incandescent bulb. It uses a tungsten element to give out light and can become very hot with use as well. When on, do not touch the bulb nor try to remove it until cooled off. A warm tungsten filament will break easily, rendering the bulb useless. By nature, incandescent bulbs produce warmer light.
These lights were sold based on their wattage and not lumens. The higher the wattage, the brighter the bulb would be. However, in today’s energy-efficient LED and CFL bulbs, the wattage is not an accurate measure nor representation of the light and brightness it produces.
A 60-watt incandescent bulb would usually produce 800 lumens, while the same lumens are given out by a 12-watt LED bulb and a 15-watt CFL bulb. See, watts are no more equal to lumens!
How much light will a CFL Bulb produce?
Now that we have established that watts are no more equal to lumens, you might be interested in knowing how much brightness will be produced by a CFL bulb. A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) or compact fluorescent light was invented to replace the power consuming incandescent bulbs.
It uses significantly less energy as compared to incandescent lights and produces the same number of lumens for a fraction of energy costs. Inherently CFLs are on the expensive side, but over time, the savings in energy bills and the long life pay for themselves and even banks some savings as well.