When shopping for LED strips, smart lights, or regular light bulbs, you may see references to "lumens" or "lumens" somewhere in the packaging or marketing materials. But what are lumens? We shed light on this topic.
Lumens are a measure of brightness
Lumen is a scientific unit that expresses the visible light output of a light source. The brighter the light source, the more lumens it produces. The measurement of lumens is weighted and adjusted based on how humans perceive light.
So, for example, if you compare a bulb that outputs 900 lumens to a bulb that outputs 2000 lumens, the 2000 lumens bulb will be brighter than the 900 lumens bulb. The more lumens the bulb emits, the brighter the bulb will be.
This means that a good measure of bulb efficiency is lumens per watt (lm/W). A typical 100-watt incandescent light bulb uses 100 watts of power and outputs about 1,600 lumens. Meanwhile, a 14-17 watt LED bulb can also put out about 1,600 lumens. This means you get more light with less power, saving you on your electricity bill.
The same principle applies to any type of lighting device: smart bulbs, LED strips or others. The more lumens emitted, the brighter the output device will be.
