Energy saving technology continues to advance and choices are becoming more common. Choosing a lightbulb has gotten more complicated. Getting a great new light fixture is one way to update and brighten your home. Installing the wrong lightbulb can make a room feel harsh or too dark and affect the way furniture, and paint looks. You can still buy the old-fashioned 60 watt tungsten bulb, but as states look at the importance of lightbulb efficiency, it helps to understand the new types of lightbulbs and lighting terminology.

Types of Bulbs
LEDs is the most energy efficient bulb, and also the most expensive. CFLs contain mercury and require proper disposal. Incandescent (halogen and tungsten) are the least efficient and lose 90% of their energy as heat.

Sizes
Lightbulbs come in many different sizes. When you are shopping, the common lightbulb size/shape is called an “A19 medium base.”

Brightness
Light output is measured in lumens. As a comparison, the old 60 watt incandescent bulb emits approximately 800 lumens, a 40 watt, 450 lumens, 100w is 1,600 lumens. Knowing the lumens helps you compare output between the different types of bulbs

Energy
The amount of electricity use is measured in watts. Your old 60W tungsten (800 lumen) bulb consumes 60 watts. The equivalent brightness in an LED bulb only consumes 14 watts. That is a whopping 75% reduction in energy consumption! Efficiency is often called lumen per watt, or LPM. The higher the number, the more efficient.

Appearance
You’ve heard of the terms warm or cool used to describe a lightbulb. These can be very subjective. Luckily we can explain that better which helps you compare bulbs. Light is described in terms of color, and measured in temperature (degrees Kelvin). Roughly, 2700K is a tungsten bulb, 3000K is a halogen bulb, and 4500K is a daylight bulb and looks blue-ish. A good rule of thumb is that 2700K is warm and cozy, and best used in living rooms and bedrooms. 3000K looks crisp and is best used in kitchen and bathrooms. 4500K bulbs are great for the garage and laundry rooms. One thing to remember is do not mix the types of bulbs in a room. Mixing mages things look awkward and imbalanced.

Dimming
When you dim a lightbulb, what happens depends on the type of bulbs. The color of an incandescent bulb when dimmed, warms and looks more like candlelight. Look for “dimmable” as a feature on the lightbulb package. Some of the newer bulbs cannot be dimmed.

Color Rendering
This measurement, CRI, can be important is you are calling attention to fabric or a piece of artwork. Natural sunlight has a CRI rating of 100, which is the most accurate color rendering. If this is important to you, seek a bulb with 100 CRI.

Based on an article by Al DeGenova for Realtor magazine 04-08-21