Picking Out a Lightbulb | just making sure I understand this
I was trying to figure out how to know what lightbulb I need for a lamp I have, and I realized every time I buy a lightbulb I’m confused. This time I did some research, and I’m writing down what I understand, so next time I will either remember better, or I will just come here and relearn how to pick out a lightbulb.
There are four numbers involved that don’t have anything to do with the size of the bulb. They are:
Voltage
Wattage
Lumens
Kelvins
Voltage is the capacity of the bulb to let electricity flow through it. So go up to dim your light and increase the life of your bulb and go down to brighten your life and burn it out faster.
Wattage is the energy the bulb uses to emit light, so the lower you can go, while still getting the output you want, the better.
Lumens is the perceived brightness of the bulb. 800 Lumens is roughly equivalent to what a 60 watt bulb used to put out. Higher number = brighter light
Kelvins are the measure we use for light color, or warmth. Anything under 3000 Kelvin is warm light, 3500 to 4000 is neutral, and the light starts to go bluish around 5500.
Then you need to know what kind of base you have, what shape you want, if you want LED or CFL, smart or dumb, frosted or clear...Those things I usually already know though, so this post is done for now.
There are four numbers involved that don’t have anything to do with the size of the bulb. They are:
Voltage
Wattage
Lumens
Kelvins
Voltage is the capacity of the bulb to let electricity flow through it. So go up to dim your light and increase the life of your bulb and go down to brighten your life and burn it out faster.
Wattage is the energy the bulb uses to emit light, so the lower you can go, while still getting the output you want, the better.
Lumens is the perceived brightness of the bulb. 800 Lumens is roughly equivalent to what a 60 watt bulb used to put out. Higher number = brighter light
Kelvins are the measure we use for light color, or warmth. Anything under 3000 Kelvin is warm light, 3500 to 4000 is neutral, and the light starts to go bluish around 5500.
Then you need to know what kind of base you have, what shape you want, if you want LED or CFL, smart or dumb, frosted or clear...Those things I usually already know though, so this post is done for now.
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