LED Technology is new and exciting. As lighting technology continues to improve, so does the importance of developing an understanding of technical terms and ideas related to LED lighting technology.

Definitions

Watt: unit equivalent to Amps x Volts.

Surprisingly, Watts is not a measure of light at all-they are a measure of energy consumed. Traditionally, with incandescent bulbs, the more power consumed the more light emitted, so the light output was equated by power consumption.

However, when dealing with LEDs, more power does not necessarily mean more light. LEDs consume far less power than incandescent bulbs.

An incandescent bulb drawing 100W may light a single room, while an LED lamp drawing 100W could light up several large rooms

Here’s another way to understand this idea. Let’s equate the energy consumption of a lamp to the gasoline consumption in a car.

Let’s assume Watts is the Gas, Light Output is the Distance Traveled, and the Lamp is the Car

When asked how far away a destination maybe

Do we ask, “How many gallons away is that town?” No. Why not? Because we know that different cars get different gas mileage.

If all cars achieved the same gas mileage we could estimate distance by the number of gallons of gas consumed.

But with technology constantly making engines more fuel-efficient, it would be inaccurate to measure distance by gallons of gasoline consumed