Wattages Can be Determinant for Lighting Brightness?

With the rapid technology innovation going forward, light lamps updated the technology in terms of no matter compact design, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, as a result, lighting fixtures both in explosion proof usage and industrial usage come through several technological revolution in accordance with the relevant matched housing structure, fixtures shape, lamp source locations.

Five Typical Stages for Lamps in Explosion Proof and Industrial Usage

The 1st Stage: Incandescent lamps

The 2^nd Stage: Halogen lamps

The 3^rd Stage: Fluorescent lamps(T8, T5), Compact fluorescent lamps(CFLs)

The 4^th Stage: High intensity dis-charging lamps(HIDs) including high pressure sodium(HPS) lamps, metal halide(MH) lamp, high pressure mercury(HPM) lamp.

The 5^th Stage: Light-emitting diodes(LED)

In recent years, LED lamps trend to replace other traditional lamps in the world as LED lamps use less energy to save energy and build up a green home, especially government of many countries launched new stated energy-saving plan to replace all lamps into LED lamps, when shopping for a lighting fixture, there is not only wattages determined the brightness.

Wattages and Brightness

In most case, users purchase lighting fixtures on the basis of the wattages because they think the wattages determine the brightness of the lighting fixture produced from the lamps. However, it is not true actually. The fact is the wattages only indicate how much the energy the lamps should be powered, not how bright the lamp is. For example, a 150-watt lamp may be not brighter than a 100-watt lamp, so wattage is not a reliable determinant for the brightness of lighting fixtures.

Lumens and Brightness

To get to understand the brightness of a lighting fixture, uses should focus on the lumens. Lumens means the unit of luminous flux, a measure of the total quantity of visible light emitted by a source per unit of time, also indicate how much light you are getting from a lamp bulbs, as a result, lumens is the determinant of the brightness of lighting fixtures. For example, both a 100- watt high pressure sodium lamp and a 60-watt led lamp can produces the same estimated 8.000 lumens, the brightness are the same while wattages are different.

Lumen Efficiency and Brightness

Lumen efficiency indicate how much lumens or how bright for every wattage, with the creative breakthrough development for energy-saving lighting technology, the lumen efficiency is becoming higher and higher in this decades. In order to produce the same brightness, users tend to use less and less electricity or energy. For example, when installed for T8 fluorescent lamp, the lumens efficiency is around 85 lumens per wattage, you need 2x36 watts lamp tube to get 6,120 lumens. But the lumens efficiency of led lamp can reach up to 160 lumens per wattage, you may only need 40 watts led lamp to get 6,120 lumens.

Typical Lumens Efficiency for Explosion Proof Lighting Fixture

• 120-140 lumens per watt for explosion proof high bay lighting fixture, 100 watt lighting fixture produce 12,000-14,000 lumens

• 120-140 lumens per watt for explosion proof flood lighting fixture, 100 watt lighting fixture produce 12,000-14,000 lumens

• 85 lumens per watt for explosion proof T8 fluorescent lighting fixture, 2x18 watt lighting fixture produce 3,060 lumens

• 130 lumens per watt for explosion proof led tube linear lighting fixture, 2x18 watt lighting fixture produce 4,080 lumens

• 140 lumens per watt for explosion proof led linear lighting fixture, 40 watt lighting fixture produce 5,600 lumens

Typical Lumens Efficiency for Industrial Lighting Fixture

• 140-160 lumens per watt for industrial high bay lighting fixture, 100 watt lighting fixture produce 14,000-16,000 lumens

• 140-160 lumens per watt for industrial flood lighting fixture, 100 watt lighting fixture produce 14,000-16,000 lumens

• 85 lumens per watt for industrial T8 fluorescent lighting fixture, 2x18 watt lighting fixture produce 3,060 lumens

• 140 lumens per watt for industrial led linear lighting fixture, 40 watt lighting fixture produce 5,600 lumens

Other Factors to Influence the Brightness

Excluding lumens, there are some other factors affecting the brightness of the lighting fixtures, such as lens and reflectors, color temperature, installation height.

A. Lens and Reflectors

Lens can be integrated in the flat glass, reflectors can be additionally installed near to the lamp, to control the beam angle of the light and also optimize the brightness from restricted directions through changing the beam directions. Proper usages of lens and reflectors can make full use of light for the places where focused light are requested, no matter for spot lighting or projector lighting.

B. Color Temperature

Light reflect in a variety of colors, but not all colors of light can be visible for eyes. Red or orange color of lights will have less brightness than a color such as white or blue where located in the middle of the spectrum, at the same time, purple and ultraviolet light also may hinder the output of brightness. In order to make sure the best brightness, 3000-5000K may be suitable for excellent brightness.

C. Installation Height

The higher when a lighting fixture installed on a surface , platform or ceiling, the less brightness it will be seem. Considering the same output lumens, when you installed the lighting fixture in a lower place, the light may be more concentrated to make it brighter. Anyway, you can both increase the lumens and lower the installation height to adjust the brightness of a lighting fixture.