Now’s the right time to switch to LED Bulbs, LED bulbs have made significant advances over the last few years; finally delivering the warm light incandescent have comforted us with for decades. Because there are so many LED varieties, choosing an LED Bulbs is entirely different from picking up an incandescent. Before you head to the store, find out what you need to know about choosing the right LED bulbs.

Lumens, not watts
Forget what you know about incandescent — your watts are no good here. When shopping for bulbs, you’re probably accustomed to looking for watts, an indication of how bright the bulb will be. The brightness of LEDs, however, is determined a little differently.

Contrary to common belief, wattage isn’t an indication of brightness, but a measurement of how much energy the bulb draws. For incandescent, there is an accepted correlation between the watts drawn and the brightness, but for LEDs, watts aren’t a great predictor of how bright the bulb will be. (The point, after all, is that they draw less energy.)For example, an LED bulb with comparable brightness to a 60W incandescent is only 8 to 12 watts.

But don’t bother doing the math — there isn’t a uniform way to covert incandescent watts to LED watts. Instead, a different form of measurement should be used: lumens.

The lumen (lm) is the real measurement of brightness provided by a light bulb, and is the number you should look for when shopping for LEDs. For reference, here’s a chart that shows the watt-lumen conversion for incandescent and LEDs.

Now’s the right time to switch to LED Bulbs, LED bulbs have made significant advances over the last few years; finally delivering the warm light incandescent have comforted us with for decades. Because there are so many LED varieties, choosing an LED Bulbs is entirely different from picking up an incandescent. Before you head to the store, find out what you need to know about choosing the right LED bulbs.

Lumens, not watts
Forget what you know about incandescent — your watts are no good here. When shopping for bulbs, you’re probably accustomed to looking for watts, an indication of how bright the bulb will be. The brightness of LEDs, however, is determined a little differently.

Contrary to common belief, wattage isn’t an indication of brightness, but a measurement of how much energy the bulb draws. For incandescent, there is an accepted correlation between the watts drawn and the brightness, but for LEDs, watts aren’t a great predictor of how bright the bulb will be. (The point, after all, is that they draw less energy.)For example, an LED bulb with comparable brightness to a 60W incandescent is only 8 to 12 watts.

But don’t bother doing the math — there isn’t a uniform way to covert incandescent watts to LED watts. Instead, a different form of measurement should be used: lumens.

The lumen (lm) is the real measurement of brightness provided by a light bulb, and is the number you should look for when shopping for LEDs. For reference, here’s a chart that shows the watt-lumen conversion for incandescent and LEDs.