The old days of choosing light bulbs by wattage are over. With today’s modern LED bulbs, we instead need to focus on lumens. But what is a lumen? We’ll explain that, and then you can use our lumens to watts conversion chart to select the right LED bulb every time
How to Convert Lumens to Watts
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Step 1: Understand WattsWatts are a measure of energy consumption. When we pay our electric bill, we pay for the number of watts we use. A 60-watt bulb consumes 60 watts of energy. Since we used 60-watt incandescent bulbs for so many years, we associated a certain level of brightness with 60 watts. But we can’t do that anymore, since LED technology produces more light while using fewer watts. Instead, we need to use lumens. |
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Step 2: Understand LumensA lumen is a measure of visible light energy. The higher the lumens, the brighter the light. All lighting manufacturers are starting to tell us how many lumens are produced by each of their products. We see these lumen numbers on the Lighting Facts labels found on all new LED bulb packages. It may take a while to get used to using lumens instead of watts, but it’s important in order to make the best lighting choices. |
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Step 3: Understand Efficacy (Lumens/Watt)Now that we understand watts and lumens, we can use both terms to come up with lumens per watt or “efficacy” (or “luminous efficacy”). This is a measure of how well a light source converts energy (watts) into light (lumens). The old technology of tungsten incandescent bulbs only had an efficacy of about 15 lumens/watt. Depending on the bulb and the manufacturer, LED technology typically produces 75-110 lumens/watt. So, LEDs are generally about 7 times more efficient at producing light than incandescent bulbs. Use a 7:1 ratio as a rough guide when selecting an LED bulb to replace an incandescent bulb. |
For example, if you wanted to replace a 60-watt incandescent bulb, what wattage LED bulb would be roughly equivalent? Using the 7:1 ratio, simply divide 60 watts by 7 to get roughly 9 watts. But efficacy varies greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer, so it’s best to check the Lighting Facts label and try to match lumens. Also, a label will sometimes (but not always) tell you that an LED bulb has an equivalent brightness. Refer to the charts below for a ready reference. Finally, please note that all VOLT® outdoor LED light bulbs have the incandescent or halogen equivalent wattage displayed on their product pages. We make switching to LED landscape lighting easy!
Want to know more? Learn about outdoor light bulbs, or use our energy savings calculators to see how much it costs to operate your current outdoor lighting system or how much you can save by switching to LEDs.
Lumens to Watts Conversion Chart |
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Lumens |
Incandescent Watts |
Halogen Watts |
LED Watts |
| 100 |
7 |
6 | 2 |
| 375 |
25 |
20 | 4 |
| 450 |
30 |
25 | 5 |
| 800 |
60 |
45 | 9 |
| 1100 |
75 |
60 | 12 |
| 1600 |
100 |
90 | 17 |
| 2600 |
150 |
145 | 27 |
| 3000 |
200 |
175 | 32 |
Luminous Efficacy |
|
Light Source |
Luminous Efficacy (Lumens/Watt) |
|
Incandescent |
12-18 |
|
Halogen |
10-20 |
|
LED |
75-135 |
As a unit of power, a watt represents the consumption or conversion of one joule of energy per second. In electricity, a watt is equal to current (in amperes) multiplied by voltage (in volts). When selecting a light bulb, the wattage will tell you how much energy a bulb will consume - not how bright the light it produces will be. The higher the wattage, the more energy will be consumed and the more expensive it will be to operate. Use an energy savings calculator to find out how costly incandescent and halogen bulbs are, or to learn how much you can save by switching to LED bulbs.
A lumen is a unit that quantifies the visible light emitted by a source. When selecting a light bulb, the number of lumens will tell you how much visible light will be produced - not how much energy will be required to produce that light. The higher the lumens, the brighter the light.
It depends on the type of bulb and even the bulb's manufacturer. But in general, you can expect 800 lumens of light output from a 9 watt LED bulb, a 45 watt halogen bulb or a 60 watt incandescent bulb.
Depending on the manufacturer, a 100 watt incandescent or halogen bulb typically produces 1500-1900 lumens of light output, which is roughly equivalent to a 17 watt LED bulb.
Watts are a measure of energy consumption; lumens are a measure of brightness. A 60 watt incandescent bulb produces 800 lumens of visible light and can be replaced by a 9 watt LED bulb. A 60 watt halogen bulb produces about 1100 lumens of visible light and can be replaced by a 12 watt LED bulb.
No, the color temperature of light is measured in Kelvin. The lower the number, the warmer (more orange) the light. 2200K is like candlelight. The most common color temperature for landscape lighting is 2700K (warm white), which is ideal for highlighting architectural features like stone or brick. The cooler (more blue) 3000K is also a popular option, especially for modern homes or making the greens in foliage pop.
