EVERYTHING ABOUT LED LIGHT BULBS

How bright is too bright?

So, I am sure everyone has bought a light that says equivalent to 60W incandescent, and then bought a different brand a month later and the bulbs are significantly different in brightness. So just like with the shade of white, LEDs have a different way to look at brightness and it isn’t Watts.

Lumens! This is the number you want to look for. A general rule of thumb is 1000 lumens. Above 1000 is bright, below 1000 is not. Done! (Kidding). There is way more to think about than the 1000 lumens rule.

60W incandescent bulbs typically glowed between 800 and 900lm (lumens). Companies typically say 800lms is the replacement for 60W bulbs but personally, I have found them dimmer and found the 900lm (slightly more expensive) to be closer to the mark. Use the chart seen to help decide what lumen is right for you!

Have you already bought LED bulbs greater than 800lms? Why are your rooms currently dim? This is due to how LED bulbs age. They don’t typically just ‘burn out’ unless the bulb is defective (most bulbs have warranties of some sort if you care). LED bulbs dim over time, and when I say over time, I mean quite quickly actually.

The chart shows the brightness of an LED bulb rated for 50,000 hours.  If you buy an 800lm bulb, thinking it is a 60W replacement, in 50,000 hours, your bulb will be 560lm or less than a 40W equivalent. 50,000 hours sounds like a lot and the box will tell you it will last over 50 years (3hrs a day). But let’s face it, we use light more than that. At 12hrs a day, it would last about 12.5 years before it reaches 560lm. 12 years doesn’t sound bad if you are ok with significantly dimmer rooms.

Instead of looking at the 70% mark, you should focus on the 90% mark and that is where the graph comes into play. Once a light bulb dims more than 90% other people will start to notice (you probably won't if you use the lights every day). Looking at the math, 90% of 800 is 720lm. This isn’t too bad but still dimmer than an incandescent light bulb. Looking at the graph, 90% mark for a 50,000 hour bulb happens to be around 20,000 hours. This is 2.5 times sooner than the 70% mark, which the box will advertise.

Most of us don’t buy the 50,000-hour bulb but instead save some money and buy the 25,000 hour bulb. Assuming that the 90% mark happens 2.5 times sooner than the 70%, in less than 3 years, your lights will be noticeably dimmer. Using Excel, I made a chart to convert how many years they say it will last to how many years it realistically lasts. The math conveniently turns out to be 1/10th of their rated time. So if it says 50 years, then replace it after 5 years to stay above 90% brightness.

All of this is based off ideal situations. Your house is far from an ideal lab setting so it is completely possible for all the lights to dim sooner than expected. So what is my suggestion? Be economical! If you want a 900lm bulb, go buy the 1000lm instead. After 1 to 3 years, it will drop down to the 900lm and then 2 to 6 years, it will drop down to under 800lm. After a few weeks or months of the brighter light, you will get use to it.