Page 16 - Ultimate Bath & Kitchen Planning Guide

CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRODUCTS
Lighting Sources
A good lighting source will make your room really shine. Here’s what you need to know when choosing light sources.
COLOR TEMPERATURE
Light is seen in a color spectrum. Knowing the color of the light is important. It needs to be not too warm and not too cool. The best colors seem to be between 2700K – 3500K. Energy use is a concern every household faces today. LEDs provide the best light for the least energy used.
WATTS VS. LUMENS
To start, what’s the difference between a watt and a lumen?
Watts:
Watts are a measurement of how much electricity something uses. It actually has nothing to do with how bright a bulb is, but incandescent bulbs are so similar
in their light output that, in the past, when we bought a 100-watt incandescent light bulb, we had a general idea of how bright it would be. We associated watts with light.
With newer types of bulbs, it takes far fewer watts to create just as much light, so wattage ratings are no longer very useful. Each type of bulb is different, and the whole idea is to develop bulbs that use fewer watts to provide better light.
Lumens:
Lumens are the measurement of the amount of light put out by the bulb. Lumens indicates how the light per- forms even when the light comes from an incandescent, fluorescent or LED source.
A standard 60-watt incandescent bulb will produce between 750-850 lumens of light, and so will a 13-watt CFL or a 9-watt LED.
LED lamp life is often between 25,000-50,000 hours, but don’t expect the bulb to burn out like in the past. An LED lamp reaches the end of its useful life when the light output has depreciated 70 percent of its stated output. Using the standard of 800 lumens, once an LED lamp has deprecated to 570 lumens of output, it is no longer providing the correct amount of light.
2700K 3000K
4500K 6500K
Warm White
Bright White
Daylight
COLOR RENDERING INDEX (CRI)
The CRI of a light bulb refers to a bulb's ability to show the full color range. CRI is rated from 0-100, with 100 being closest to natural daylight. A CRI of 80 is fine for fill lighting; 90-100 is best for task lighting in an office, kitchen and bath.
INCANDESCENT
LAMP WATTS........... LUMENS
25................................................................ 200 35................................................................ 325 40................................................................ 450 60................................................................ 800 75............................................................. 1,100 100........................................................... 1,600 125........................................................... 2,000 150........................................................... 2,600
PAGE 14 ULTIMATE LIGHTING PLANNING GUIDE
Find the right LED for the application