What are lumens?

While a watt is the measurement of how much energy is consumed by a light bulb (or other electronic device), a lumen is the measurement of brightness in light output. For instance, a single candle burning at your dining table provides about 12 lumens of light, while a 60-watt light bulb emits about 800 lumens.

Because CFL and LED bulbs consume much less electricity, looking at a bulb's wattage level will be difficult for comparison when making the switch from incandescent bulbs. Instead, lumens will be a better comparative measure as you can match the amount of light that an incandescent bulb produces with that of a CFL or LED. For example, when replacing the 800 lumens of a 60-watt incandescent, you can look for a CFL bulb rated at between 13 to 15 watts or an LED bulb rated at 6 to 8 watts.

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