5 Basic Lighting Terms You Need to Know

With lighting technology constantly changing, vocabulary can easily become daunting. We went back to the basics to help sort out some commonly confusing lighting terms so you can feel confident about our lighting specifications.

1. WATTAGE

Wattage (W) measures the use of power. The lower the wattage, the more efficient it is. For incandescent lamping, a lower wattage usually means a dimmer bulb. But in terms of LED’s, as a result of our growing technology, there is now less of a correlation between wattage and lower lumens. LED’s are now lower in wattage while still producing the same lumen output. A fixture with LED lamping can use as little as 6W, which is up to 7 times more efficient than incandescent bulbs.

2. LUMENS

Lumens (LM) is what measures your fixture’s brightness capacity. We recommend 400-600LM, preferably with dimming capabilities, for direct task lighting. To determine the right lumens for your space, multiply your space square footage by its respective foot-candle. Refer to the chart below.

Foot-candles for common home spaces

3. CRI

Color-Rendering Index (CRI) is the valuation of a color’s appearance under a light source, as opposed to natural light. We recommend at least 90 CRI for the most accurate color translation. See below to check your fixture’s CRI rating.