How does wattage affect light bulbs

This way, you can start thinking in lumens rather than watts when purchasing bulbs. Check out this lumens chart to see how the numbers compare. You are now equipped to make well-informed LED lighting purchases. Contact LED Light and Power to find the bulbs , flex tape , flood lights , and more for all of your lighting projects.

LED lighting saves you energy and money. For many shoppers, the light appearance, or color temperature, of the bulb matters a lot. The Lighting Facts label will tell you where that bulb falls on the warm more yellow to cool more blue range.

The number of lumens is printed on the bulb. CFLs also include a web address, epa. CFLs contain mercury, so you need to be careful if a CFL breaks and you need to clean it up and dispose of it. Learn more about shopping for light bulbs at energy. Watts are named after Scottish mechanical engineer and inventor, James Watt — , who is renowned for his work in steam engine technology.

All light bulbs have a wattage rating. It follows that the higher the wattage, the greater the amount of electrical consumption or electricity used, thus the more it will cost to run the light bulb. Typically choosing from w, w, 75w, 60w and 40w bulbs, it was understood that the greater the wattage, the brighter the light.

The resistance of a traditional incandescent bulb is affected by its filament, depending on its length, thickness, material, and so on. That metallic filament needs to be heated to a high temperature until it glows, and a filament with higher resistance glows brighter — but needs more power. So if a bulb has a brighter-burning filament, it is constructed at a higher wattage.

A filament fitted within a W bulb has a higher resistance than a 60W bulb and so emits a brighter light. This is considered to be wasted energy. The rate at which a light source converts electrical power into light is known as luminous efficacy and is expressed as lumens per watt LPW. The higher the LPW, the more efficient the light source. So while an incandescent light source has a low LPW, an energy-saving bulb has a much higher LPW: more of the electrical input is converted to luminous output.