Watt's Watt with LED bulbs?

Does anyone else find it really confusing buying light bulbs these days?!
Well I was glad to have the opportunity to write about these awesome new LED filament bulbs from Plumen that we've started stocking, so now I have a better idea of watt's watt.

So here's what I learned...traditional bulbs (incandescent) are measured in watts, so if you wanted a brighter bulb you bought a higher wattage. But now that LEDs and other types of lighting have come along, that yardstick has become meaningless (hence my head-scratching when I go to the hardware shop), so now a bulb's brightness is listed as lumens, which is a more accurate measurement of how bright it is, rather than how much energy it consumes.

I found this table really helpful in showing me watt's watt (I can't help it!)

So why do we need to know this? Well basically, since 2005 governments around the world have been passing laws to ban the manufacturing of incandescent light bulbs in favour of more energy-efficient alternatives. So once current stocks have depleted then that's the end of them. The alternatives are halogen, fluorescent and LED (light-emitting diode). Compared to halogen and fluorescent bulbs, LEDs have the advantages of containing no mercury, they turn on instantly at any temperature, their extremely long lifetime is unaffected by cycling on and off, they don't emit UV rays that fade coloured materials. LED lamps radiate almost no heat, and can be either multi-directional or uni-directional, eliminating the need for a mirrored reflector in the bulb or fixture. 

The only real disadvantages of LEDs is spectrum limitations due to discrete emission colours, and the higher up-front cost than incandescent bulbs. Though in fairness, LEDs have come along way in the last few years, and you can now get warmer tones that are more like our incandescent friends. And as for the cost, really they pay for themselves over time, as they last way longer and consume way less energy than traditional bulbs.

So we may as well get on the band wagon now, because LED bulbs are the way of the future!

And if you're looking for a stunning lamp to show off your Whirly Wyatt, check out these deadly Concrete Block Lamp, Concrete Pendant Lamp and our copper Oulu Table Lamp.