A lamp is any of numerous devices that use for creating illumination and sometimes for getting heat. It is an artificial source of light made from various light-producing instruments. Measure lumens means to measure the total amount of light emitted by the bulb or giving light source.
Lumens power is also known as brightness or light outputs. All other measures or features of a lamp are based on its lumen. The higher number of lumens specifies the more intense and brighter light whereas the lower number of lumens indicates the dimmer lamplight.
How Much Light is Needed?
A unit measurement of light is called lumens. The efficiency of the bulb depends upon the number of lumens as the higher the lumens the bulb is more efficient. To determine the number of lumens you require to multiplying the room square footage by your room foot-candle requirements. For common walkways, 100 lumens is enough to brighten up the area.
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A 100 square foot living room requires 1000-2000 lumens. On the other hand, a 100 square foot dining room needs 3000-4000 lumens power. And for an average room or space of 250 feet, almost about 5000lumens power is effective. 20 watts light lamp is almost equal to 100 lumens.
How to Measure Lumens?
A device known as a lumen meter or light meter helps to measure the light in a specific area. To measure the light intensity within a space the metric illuminance is used. Mostly the light intensity is measure in lumens per square meter or lux and lumens per square foot or foot-candles and lumens.
Before placing any light in your room make sure to know that how much lighting do you need and select lumen according to that. You can see the lumen’s power of a lamp on its luminaire catalog or product packaging. As a standard 100w incandescent light bulb produces about 1500–1700 lumens, 45w LED lamp produces 5800 lumens, 150w halogen lamp produces 2600lumens.
Different types of lamps are used for different purposes as their energy efficiency, the material used and operating principles differ. Some of them are discussed here,
LED lamps (30-80lumen/watt) are either use for indoor to outdoor lighting. A fluorescence (50-70lumens/watt) lamp is best for small commercial applications. An incandescent (8-20lumends/watt) lamp is used as decorating lights or home lightning. Halogen (20-25lumen/watt) lamp is suitable for theatre or ground lightning.
- Measure Foot Candle
A way or unite to measure the intensity of light that specifically illuminates an area is known as foot-candle and luminance. One foot-candle is equal to one lumen per square foot; it is the intensity of 1 candle power light source at a one-foot distance.
- Measure Lumens by Lux Meter
Simply know that 1 lumen is equal to 1 lux per square meter. Lux meter use to measure white light or incandescent bulb. It’s very easy to measure the lumens by multiply the area in square meters by lux or even with the area in square feet measure by foot candles.
