Australia phased out the sale of incandescent light bulbs back in the 2000s and is currently phasing out the sale of halogen bulbs after a pandemic-caused delay. For companies that had a stockpile of halogen and incandescent bulbs and who are now running out, the switch to LEDs isn't going to be that complicated. But people do need to know how to find a bulb that matches the light they had before. This is especially important in commercial settings where the light can affect productivity, mood, and overall job performance.

Equivalent Watts, or "What Is That in Incandescent Terms?"

It used to be that you could look at a bulb package and tell how bright the bulb would be by looking at the number of watts used. That's not the case with LEDs because, even though an LED that uses more power will draw more watts, the wattage numbers are way off compared to incandescents and halogens. You could tell a 60-watt incandescent bulb would be bright enough for your purposes. A 13-watt LED bulb? Not a very helpful description.

But most packages will have an equivalent description, such as a 100-watt equivalent. That gives you an idea of how the lumens and temperature combine to produce light.

Lumens, or Brightness

Lumens are a measure of light output, or brightness, to oversimplify it. More lumens equals more light. If you want a very bright light, for example, you'd look for one with a high equivalent wattage and a high number of lumens. One thing to look out for is that higher-lumen bulbs can be a little bigger than lower-lumen bulbs in some cases. Bulbs made for ceiling fans, for example, tend to be smaller and often don't come in versions that have very high lumen output. So, you might want a brighter light, but the size bulb you need won't come in that model.

Temperature, or General Light Color

One more issue with LED bulbs is that they have a colour temperature. This is a measure in kelvins, and it determines the colour or hue of the light. This is not about whether a light is red, yellow, green, or purple; those are created with coatings and filters. Colour temperature, however, describes the spectrum from very warm to cool. Warmer lights are associated with a lower kelvin number and tend to be yellower, cozier lights reminiscent of lower-wattage incandescent bulbs. Not very good for middle-of-the-day work in an office. Higher kelvin amounts indicate cooler white light, with very high temperature readings appearing slightly bluish. Those fairy lights that appear like very light blue dots? Those are actually cool white with a high colour temperature. Cool white is very good for task lighting for an office, for example.

And by the way, if your office or shop uses fluorescent bulbs? Start switching those over to LED, too. LEDs are much easier to dispose of and don't pose the same amount of danger to you (no mercury in LEDs) as fluorescent bulbs.

For more information about choosing LEDs for commercial lighting, contact a professional.