What are lumens?
When shopping for smart light bulbs, make sure you're comparing lumens to ensure you're getting the level of brightness you want. Lumens (denoted by lm) are a measure of the total amount of visible light from a light source. More lumens means it's a brighter light, while fewer lumens means it's a dimmer light.
In the past, you may have bought light bulbs based on wattage, or how much energy they use. This was a good rule of thumb when the only type of light bulb available was the incandescent light bulb. However, today's energy saving light bulbs (such as LED) provide the same amount of light with less energy. For example, a 60W incandescent light bulb uses 60Wh of energy in one hour and provides brightness of around 800 lumens. A typical LED light bulb can provide the same 800 lumens with just 9W.
Converting from traditional wattage
So when you are shopping for light bulbs, think lumens not watts. Here are some rules of thumb to convert traditional incandescent bulb wattage to lumens:
- 100W incandescent bulb is about 1,600 lumens
- 75W incandescent bulb is about 1,100 lumens
- 60W incandescent bulb is about 800 lumens
- 40W incandescent bulb is about 450 lumens
A typical smart bulb produces 800 lumens, but the Kosen Smart Bulb produces 1,100 lumens and uses only 10W, which is around 40% brighter but uses over 85% less energy than the equivalent 75W incandescent light bulb.
What if you want it less bright?
The other great thing about smart lighting is that you can dim the brightness. So it's always worth purchasing a smart light with more lumens. When it's time to wind down during the evening, you can use an app or voice to dim the lights.