How Bright are LED Lights vs. Incandescent Bulbs and CFLs?

The typical incandescent light – bulb or spotlight – uses between 40W and 100W. We always are asked how our Mr. Beams Wireless LED Lights compare to these incandescent bulbs and spotlights. My first response is that the Mr. Beams Wireless LED Lights don’t use any electricity. These motion sensor LED lights are battery operated, and completely off the grid. And they should make your batteries last at least a year under typical use.

But what people are really asking is this: “How bright are your wireless LED lights?” My old wired outside lights used to have 60W and 75W incandescent bulbs. These lights put out anywhere from 800 lumens to 1100 lumens. What is a lumen? Think of a lumen as a volume of light – similar to paint. If you have 128 ounces of yellow paint, you can cover one side of your house with a light coating of color or a smaller section of the side of your house with a darker coating of color. Light is similar, and lumens is a measure of the total output of light. If that amount of light is concentrated by using a lens (known as optics) then the light will cover less area but be more intense where the light is covering and thus appear brighter. That measurement is lux. What is lux? Lux is the intensity of the light on a surface. Of course, if you start with very little light in the first place, the idea of brightness (in this case light intensity, or lux) will never be achieved, no matter what optics are used to increase brightness.

Light bulbs are high on lumens but lower on lux. The light from a light bulb is emitted in every direction, so the intensity on any one surface (the lux) is never as high as a spotlight. A spotlight takes the same number of lumens (think how much total paint in the can) and concentrates it into an areas about one-third that of a light bulb. Therefore the lux of an incandescent spotlight can be three times greater than the lux of an incandescent light bulb. So how bright does a light need to be for it to be useful to you?

We will focus this blog entry on outdoor lighting. As mentioned before, my house had all 60W and 75W incandescent bulbs and incandescent spotlights to achieve what I thought was the right amount of light. I was wrong because I did not take into account the fact that the human eye adjusts to darkness. Once the human eye is adjusted to darkness, a very low light level is adequate. I’m saying that 100 lumens is more than adequate to light up an area effectively.

In five minutes you can install a battery powered Mr. Beams Motion Sensor Security LED Spotlight and have 140 lumens of light. The photo of our battery operated LED Motion Sensor Security Spotlight shows how much light 140 lumens provides. You can read by 100 lumens if it is concentrated with optics. You can choose clothes in a closet. You can scare someone or something away with the light provided by all Mr. Beams wireless LED lights.

So if you need light right now - for a quick solution for security lighting, as a lighting solution to prevent falls, or as a solution to light a closet - the light provided by Mr. Beams wireless motion sensor LED lights will give you enough lux to provide security lighting, safety lighting and convenience lighting. Mr. Beams battery powered lights will also provide the best wireless lighting for security, safety and convenience. Wireless lighting will save you money because you can install it yourself without an electrician and move the light exactly where you need it. For the best quick, wireless security lighting, look to Mr. Beams wireless LED lights and be confident that the light is bright enough for the security, safety and convenience that you require in your lighting.