Difference Between Lumens and Watts? - THE BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHTS

A lot of people still use wattage to talk about the brightness of lamps, when in reality lumens are the measure of light output. Wattage is still useful to know as an electrician, but we need to stop using it to talk about the BRIGHTNESS of a light.
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Wattage
Wattage is used as a unit of measure for electrical consumption in a piece of equipment. It’s talking about how much power is being used, and has nothing to do with how much light is being put out, what the color of the light is, or how efficient it is at doing so.
You really only need to know wattage for 2 reasons. One is to calculate how many lamps you can install on a circuit. For instance say you have a 20-amp, 120-volt circuit that you need to install 10 60-watt lamps on. You can do the math using the PIE wheel to figure out how much wattage you have to work with on a full circuit. To do this you’d multiply 120v x 20a = 2,400 watts max. Then you’d take 10 x 60w to calculate how much wattage your 10 60-watt lamps will use - and you get 600 watts. 600-watts can fit into a 2,400-watt circuit so you know you won’t trip a 20-amp breaker with this installation. Again, this is simply telling you how much power the lamps are consuming, not anything about their brightness.
The second reason you’d want to know watts is for calculating your energy bill. Every electrical meter uses total wattage-used over time. So you’re charged based on watt-hours. If you know how much the power company charges you per watt-hour, as well as how many watts your building/home uses - you can calculate your electric bill within a reasonable amount of certainty.
LUMENS
Where brightness of a light-source is concerned, you want to use lumens as the unit of measure. Lumens tells you how much light is coming out of a light-source, not how much energy it is consuming to do so. A 500 lumen incandescent lamp at 25-watts will be relatively dim. However a 12.5-watt LED that puts out 1,000 lumens of light, will be far brighter even though the wattage is lower.
I like to think of lumens as a flood or “flow” of photons. If you have a really high lumen output, like 15,000 lumens, there will be a massive flood of photons coming out of that light source. Conversely if you have a lamp that only puts out 150 lumens, it will conceptually “trickle” photons out. The higher the lumen output of a lamp, simply put, the brighter that light will be.
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#electrical #lumens #wattage #electrician
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[@colinstu]

watts were a lot more useful in the days when lights at home were pretty much only incandescent. 45 vs 60 vs 100 vs 120+ etc. But once CFL, and even LED were thrown in the mix, lumens should've been made a bigger point of.

[@davidmarquardt2445]

I had read once that the early incandescent bulbs numbering system was based on gas lights. So if you had say, a #10 gas tip that lit up your living room, a 100 watt incandescent was comparable in light output. The 25, 40, 50, 60, 75, 100, 150, 200, and 300 watt bulbs were meant to replace other gas light orifice sizes. Now a standard 100 watt frosted bulb was rated at 1750 lumens, now I remember that as that was what we used most at home. The CFL'S were junk, they were in noway comparable to incandescent s. Horrible pinkish/orange to purple/blue, and they were dim. They would say "equivalent to 100 watt bulb" when in fact they were as bright as a 60 to maybe at best 75 watt incandescent bulb. LED's were the same, awful color and way over rated output. But they are starting to get better. About a year ago I installed LED stripes under the kitchen cabinets, 24, 18, and 12 inches long. The 2-footer is 25 watts and putts out 2,000 lumen's of 4,400K pure WHITE light. That is 250 lumen's more output than a 100 watt incandescent and 75% less power consumption!

[@Knapid]

agreed

[@dremwolf5419]

Since us old farts pretty much knew how much light your standard 40, 60, 100, 150 and 200 watt bulb would light up a room. It would have been nice when the CFL and LED lights hit the market there would have been better packaging information. IE our 1600 lumen bulb is similar to a 100 watt incandescent bulb. Packaging made it difficult to figure out how many lumens you needed for that two bulb fixture hanging in the center of a room.

[@klausvahter5471]

Really good stuff. Yesterday my buddy and I filmed our first sketch and I used some random lights from home to make a 3-point lighting setup and after everything was filmed and I imported videos to my laptop I discovered that a lot of the shots were underexposed. So I started to google lightning specific stuff and found out my poor little lights had 500 lumens. This video helped me clear out some stuff. Since studio lights go way higher in lumens, then it now makes sense.

[@aaronaatlas6206]

Thank you for this video. Your explation of the lumen perceived as photons really changed my perspective. Great Value Video!

[@josueayalallanas7142]

Boy this is amazing I’m Learning a lot, thank you. Keep coming your teaching you are awesome!

[@christorres9833]

This was useful and cleared up a lot of things for me regarding light bulbs. thank you man!

[@maloumora2861]

Great explanation, make me simple and easy understanding, I got it. Thanks

[@MsSAinyourFace]

You're so good at explaining things :) thank you !

[@abdulrahmanedu6022]

You're generous in information dude, keep it up you ROCK mann!!!!!!

[@ericsosa1753]

Love your videos Dustin, I can actually understand this when you explain it. Thanks man

[@magnum357225]

Great video, learned a lot, thank you and keep them coming

[@nicoleshadoan5986]

studying for my NCIDQ exam and you just helped me tremendously understand this topic I was struggling with. Since my field is mostly visual, I've been struggling visualizing how lighting systems work, but your trickle to flooding reference is *chef's kiss* thank you!

[@ElectricianU]

Glad to have helped - good luck on your exam!

[@Thewitchofwildlife]

I'm so glad I found this video, you really helped me! Thank you!

[@lucasshaffer3324]

Dead serious ran across this today while going to the twenty fourth floor of a building uptown. Thanks for the clarification. Do a video on ballasts vs drivers.

[@joerostkowski7313]

Ballast are auto transformers,drivers are for led bulbs on a 277 or 120 commercial circuit. They have plug and play led bulbs so you don't have to disconnect the Ballast, but you still energize the Ballast, not much energy saving only on the actual bulb. But a led fixture with a driver will save you wattage for even better lux to foot candle

[@KevinCoop1]

I'm normally a big fan but you kind of blew it on this one. Mostly kidding! A few clarifications if you don't mind. 1. You left out that MOST fixtures(luminaries) before LED are rated in specific watts or maximum watts. 2. A 120 volt lighting branch circuit that is 20 amp rated, can be connecting up 1920 watts, not 2400 watts. Lights are considered in NEC a continuous load and circuit breakers are rated at 80% for continuous loads. (20x.8= 16x120=1920). 3. Us (as you called us) old timer" designers did care about lumens! We had to do the lighting calculations as well as branch circuit calls! We had to make sure the correct amount of light was in the right places!! 😊😊. Having some fun with the last one. Be careful, I'm watching to make sure you do not mislead someone. Respectfully, Kevin

[@ANGslave]

This a is great topic!! I've worked in ligbting for entertainment since the late '80" s. Good job.

[@artisanelectrics]

Great video again thanks a lot!

[@banerifthammer4608]

Thanks mate helped me heaps I'm doing down lights in my house atm just changed LEDs because of what you said I appreciate it

[@MarkSmith-js2pu]

Dude, I’ve enjoyed many of your videos and know many more to come. You communicate and entertain well at the same time..

[@pancakepunch1011]

i could hang out with this dude! great video man

[@sabuein]

Thank you very much, this was very helpful.

[@EsteeWhitePhotography]

Really good information, thank you for sharing

[@kimberlyamayo3984]

This is a great help sir thank you so much 😊 👍👍👍

[@MonizLory]

Great video!! Well spoken with clear information. I’m just getting started about lights and I clearly understood the concepts. Question: So, when calculating how much light I need to illuminate a space, do I simple add up how many lumens outputted by each light bulb or is there a special formula for that?

[@alisaundralewis8139]

i needed this video, thanks much

[@benmunger]

A big thing to note... Bugs like the higher Kelvin light. I learned the hard way. I installed some new lights on my back patio that were very very white. Swarms of bugs would go around that light

[@MarkSmith-js2pu]

Interesting, thanks for that!

[@lucasballares2553]

You made good points on lumens and the kelvin scale, but you understated the importance of watts the first thing to say when making recommendations for light bulbs should be watts. Wattage Max labels on fixtures are important to avoid fires or overheating to understand how many lumens you want In that fixture you have to understand the max that it can handle in terms of watts before lumens.

[@davidbrewer7937]

Watts is a function of the applied voltage & the current through a circuit. A heating element in a ceramic sleeve might be rated at 500w but there would be no light emitted because the energy is radiated as Infra Red heat, beyond the visible part of the spectrum...Lumens or LUX indicate how much of the applied energy is converted into light in the visible part of the spectrum.

[@anthonyglynn803]

Can you do a video on calculating L. E. D lights per room or area

[@GuitarLone]

Thanks for the info.

[@DJTORONTO]

Thank you! - Throw a couple of graphics up on a white board or digitally for your main points and this would be perfect, Cheers

[@dangonzales2896]

Good stuff Dustin! BTW- How can i get a hold of one of those cool black ElectriciansU Tshirts in XXL?

[@jb888888888]

I'm old and trying to wrap my head around lumens. A "40 watt equivalent" I understand but if you were to only tell me "this bulb outputs 450 lumens" I'd have no idea what that would look like.

[@vmobile890]

I use a higher wattage ( brighter ) light with dimmer . Problem is sometimes like a daylight or whiter light rather warm or yellowish light . Bought a changeable bulb at Costco . I’m old also but worked in electric warehouse with many light types .

[@LifeHappens2]

Great explanation!!

[@galaxyphotoshootediting4969]

This video is really helpful

[@beast5099]

hey love the video helps a lot. im buying a house this month and they have bulbs in the garage 4. its a 2.5 car garage taller then normal ceiling in a garage. what lumens would u recommend me getting. thank you hope to hear from u soon

[@DocMatthews0311]

Very informational

[@josesoccer2011]

Hey, Good video btw. Quick question. So my parents have some lamps and light fixtures hanging from the roof (In the kitchen) that say "60W Max To Avoid Fire Hazard" or something like that. I bought an LED Lightbulb with the 100W written on the outside. Can I use those light bulbs (LED's 100W) even tho the roof fixture and one of the lamps say "60W Max" for example? I'm just afraid to install them and use them and then a fire breaks out jaja. Idk. I'm just sketchy about using them. I thought maybe since the house was built like back in the 50s it wouldn't handle the new Lightbulbs (LED Lightbulbs) measuring 60W, 70W, Or even 100W+. Thanks in advance and I hope my question made sense to you😅

[@rocksmashergames5476]

Hosé TV! Yes leds don’t get hot and heat is the problem

[@marcellgreshamjr.2761]

LED light bulbs say 100W, but if you look closer it usually says 100W replacement, and it actually uses probably around 13W

[@shawnwaldron1018]

So is it better to buy lower in watts to save energy as long as if the lumens is higher or is it the more watts the more lumens you get

[@ricktrapperriley2534]

I liked the old foot-candles to describe the amount of light.

[@T11paraplegic]

Great video

[@gusolive]

Awesome!!!!!!

[@drupadvinod9329]

Nice information

[@carolinaarango7549]

Hi! So watts on the packaging are indicating watts per hour?

[@ThePeachyCarpenter]

Does a dimmer switch effect anything to the wattage of a light? Been curious about if a dimmer helps cut cost cause of lower power use.

[@Nick-bh1fy]

It’s the voltage that is cut up

[@SupperDadder]

New dimmers are either a current limiter or a pwm, both will save power consumption

[@carultch]

The original design of a dimmer, would use select points in the voltage vs time waveform, to periodically turn the power on and off, in order to only allow the light to consume a fraction of its rated power. You generally wouldn't want to just put in a variable resistor in series with the light, because then half the power would be consumed in heating up that resistor. It would work to dim the lights, but it wouldn't be efficient.

[@beurky]

Thank you for being real. Including this video where you're now fucking swearing. I love it.

[@jasongillean44]

Could you do a video explaining shunt breakers? I’m a first year apprentice and had no idea they existed until a journeyman called me to bring him one.

[@carultch]

It means that the breaker has an additional trip mechanism on the side (shunt trip), that is mechanically linked to be able to trip the breaker just like the primary trip mechanisms. The breaker will trip either when the primary trip mechanisms trip from overcurrent, or when there is current in the shunt trip circuit. The shunt trip circuit has a significantly lower trip rating than the primary trip mechanisms. Possibly even as low as less than an individual ampere. Depending on the product, it can also be controlled by a smaller voltage in the control circuit. Such as 120V or even 24Vdc, controlling a 480V circuit thru the primary trip mechanisms. It allows a second circuit to control the breaker, and turn it off. Apply power in the control circuit, and the shunt trip throws the breaker to the tripped position. The advantage is that shunt trip breakers are usually more economical than some of the alternative circuit control devices, like contactors or motorized switches. The disadvantage is that shunt trip breakers always require a manual reset. Shunt trip breakers require adding energy to the control circuit, to shut off the main circuit. Their contactor counterparts by contrast, shut off when you subtract energy from the control circuit.

[@ramuram5423]

how many watts capacity,2000 lux sensor.can u pls explain that.

[@intertwinedmpz8679]

I need your advice I. Have a chicken farm i need light for the .chicken s if am using a jackery 1000 how much lights do I need to powers a 2000 square feet space, or let's say am using 40 watt bulbs? And how long could I run it on the jackery for?

[@alisaalisa5832]

Thank you

[@lindahaley9384]

Damn it Justin! You sure know how to say what you mean, and mean what you say...and I can definitely relate😂🤣. Hi Justin, I'm feeling that same energy as it relates to the term "Luxes" as it relates to desk led light swing lamps, but also, blacklight UV flashlights for authenticating documents. However, I notice that lux numbers are hardly acknowledged (hidden), but strongly considered when purchasing work tools for the field of work described above. Is there a way to determine "lux" measurements based on the amount of lumens "advertised" without having to purchase a lux meter? Thanks, Linda.

[@Hot.dorito]

How accurate is the Kelvin scale when determining color in a lamp? And what are the number ranges that decide what the color is going to be?

[@CristianZatonyl]

And why is the Kelvin temperature scale is used?

[@SupperDadder]

Can't comment on the accuracy of the labels, each manufacturer is different, i have seen lamps labeled the same Kelvin from different manufacturers that look completely different. Standard labels are 2700,3000,4100,5000,6000. The scale is based off thermal radiation (light) given off an object based on its temp. Like when you heat up steel, it starts as a redish color and works its way through orange, yellow, white as its temp rises. Same principle for lamp colors but they don't use the steel temp scale as the guide, im not sure what material is used.

[@carultch]

@@SupperDadder The material is a hypothetical black body. There is a physical theory behind the black body spectrum as a function of the black body's temperature. It is a limiting behavior of any material that glows, as a result of being hot enough to emit visible light. It the function of light intensity vs frequency (color) of light, assuming the material has no bias to any particular color. "Black" in this context, means full participation in radiation heat transfer. Meaning it never reflects anything, and always emits as much as it possibly can. As a package deal (Kirchhoff's radiation law) to emitting as much as it possibly can, it always absorbs any incident light it possibly can as well. Stars like the sun, initially emit according to the black body spectrum from their plasma interior, and the corona gas absorbs the frequencies specific to the "flavors" of gas within. Mostly hydrogen and helium. The sun's overall spectrum is very close to a black body at around 5800 K.

[@law-son762]

Do a video on infrared lights please

[@Mill835]

Please do not get offended by my suggestion, I'm only one opinion out of all your followers and viewers. But here goes, pro's, this is great, I can use my imagine the way you use your arms when you explained 40,000 lumen Niagara falls truly give a great idea of how bright lumens in lights is. Con's I think you reslly do not need to use such profanity to describe or explain how good something is or how great it is. I wanted to subscribe to your channel but I dont appreciate the foul language, though you do a wonderful job of explaining electrical lingual.

[@eliasnolin1748]

So I have a light fixture attached to my fan and each spot for a bulb (there’s three spots) says 4W max… I just ordered some led light bulbs that can change color and stuff from Amazon and there rated at 5W each… does this mean I can’t use these bulbs or since they are leds and the bulbs that are in there I’m pretty sure aren’t leds mean I can use these. Or could I use only two of them so in total it would be less Wattage? Thanks I’m advance and sorry for the long comment/question!

[@anonymoususer602]

What did you do?

[@malkeetsingh-ze7hc]

Thanks bro

[@KristoferProphet]

Can I use a 100 watt LED smart bulb on 40 watt maximum fixture?

[@izdagrimeyone]

When dealing with these garbage drivers for outside lighting it's good to know watts per foot. Also circuit breakers trip at 80%

[@terricavoli7997]

All I want to know is is my lamp gonna be too hot if I put a 60 white where it says to put a 40 W

[@RaquelX305]

Can anyone tell me if you can only have cool lights with high Lumens? I’m trying to find a high lumen warm light but I don’t think that exists

[@physicistduran89]

About effing time someone got it

[@mandeepuppal599]

Does 400 watts is going to be damage the car battery to run 40000 lumens coz I saw for my Honda Pilot h11 on Amazon company call wiswis if someone wants to help out plz n thx

[@josephpray125]

1200lm bright enough to light up a bathroom , around 8x8 ?

[@andrewderksen3342]

Before lumens it was candle 🕯️ power ? Right :)

[@Pikuhh]

can you do an episode on low voltage systems, like fire alarms or security cameras

[@mhmdchacha98]

That was just great!

[@catfishcave379]

Lumens vs candlepower

[@chadspencer8794]

May I ask? Basically the original lightbulb has evolved…

[@crazycrab8578]

I like it to be bright in my room, 150w, so I got 4 x 15w LED bulbs, hacked them down to around 12w, as the people that make them over clock them and they run to hot, I have already taken 2 back as the casing had cracked, after 6 months, that is before I hacked them, I had to get 2 B22 male to B22 female Y junction, they are hard to get, lots of B22 to E27, by hacking the bulbs, they will last around 5yrs plus instead of 2yrs,

[@zig6287]

Defiant lights at Home Depot for 60$ 2000 lumens love them

[@vmobile890]

When could we hear about Kelvin

[@jennifurzoe1302]

Do you sideline as a teacher or an electrician?

[@alisaundralewis8139]

lol the cursing kills me evrytime

[@kyanaramirez4054]

that's watt im talking about

[@EbrahimHasan]

You're righter than most people, but still not accurate. LED lights aren't as efficient as one another. A quick search on Amazon will show you GU10 7w LED that produce 200% lumens as one another.

[@Kris_P._Bey_Ken]

Horsepower VS Torque? 🤔

[@themonsterunderyourbed9408]

Screw lumens, I go by foot/candles.

[@TheOtisUpham]

Nobody cares about lumens or Kelvinin the field. I worked with led upgrades with the Mass save program for the first few years of my career. They matter a ton.

[@carultch]

I think most people don't really understand what these units even mean. Their mental reference point, is the wattage rating of the incandescent bulb. That's why LED's and CFL bulbs indicate an incandescent equivalent Watts (suppose it were 60W equivalent). The energy efficient bulb would produce the same lumens as the 60W incandescent bulb, but only consume perhaps 12 watts of power in its own operation.

[@alisaundralewis8139]

dungy dongy, lol i love this guy

[@Marquel_Lucas]

Great video but that intro music was terrible

[@sunnysingh8483]

A man that swears is a man I can trust 💯

[@Mill835]

Cut the music, the information is very useful, the music is a headache

[@electriciantv5174]

Watts the difference lol

[@barry_r]

First

[@MountainDewMan323]

Dingy Dongy

[@thomasvartanian5949]

lol I love the energy and the drop of F bombs. You sound very passionate about it aren't you?

[@Klaaesson]

Great video but the sounds in the intro and in some other places in the video was ghoulish!

[@elo5004]

Older people were brought up on Watts. U have to do a graph on explaining it on watts verse luminous. U R a electrician and R over people's head on explaining,

[@Bingham-wil-I-am]

Not a good video if your trying to teach elderly or kids. Lot of fowl language that’s unnecessary

[@heatblur1]

Can you drop the F bomb about 50 more times so you can be really really cool...

[@hfrt29]

You're knowledgeable,but not directive.a little confusion🤓.

[@AN1Guitarman]

I tried this video at 2x and I still couldn't. WAY too many unnecessary details.

[@robertcruz6974]

Soooo, using the "F" word makes you cool?

[@toastiefighting4634]

Get to the point lol. 90% talking, 10% learning.

[@tealx2014]

😂😂😂