LED Terminology

When choosing to switch over to LED light bulbs for your home, you might find it a little over-whelming with all the choices that are currently out there. There are a lot of different options available today with mention of terminology that is not all that familiar. The main features to be mindful of are the number of Lumens, Kelvin, Watts, and the size and shape of your new LED light bulb.

Lumens is a unit of luminous flux or overall light output. If you are looking for the brightness of a 100-Watt bulb, you would look for an LED bulb with a high number of lumens, around 1600. A few other terms associated with lumens are initial lumens and mean lumens. Initial lumens, also known as the initial light output, are the total amount of lumens produced by a specific lighting device immediately after it has stabilized but before depreciation starts. Mean lumens is the lumen output from conventional lighting devices tends to decrease in amount the longer the lamp is on, so the mean is the average lumen output from when its initial lumens depreciate to when the light is turned off.

Kelvin is the term used to describe the color of light, or the color temperature. Kelvin starts around the 1700 range, which is more of an orange-colored light. As it increases into the 3000K range, the light becomes whiter. The 3000K to 5000K range is most popular regarding LED bulbs for table lamps.

Watts is a measure of the amount of power used by the bulb. Incandescent bulbs use more power to operate, which is why they cost more in electricity usage. LEDs, however, can easily match and surpass the light output of a traditional incandescent and they use a fraction of the power.

The typical shape for a table lamp is the A19, or the classic lightbulb. A-shaped bulbs can differ in diameter depending on the number following the shape code "A". Click here to read more information about A-Shaped bulbs. Be wary on purchasing LED bulbs solely based on the lumens and kelvin. It's important to take note of the dimensions as well.

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