Choosing LED bulbs, lumens, color and the label

Watts tell you how much power a bulb uses, not how bright it is. Brightness is measured in lumens. An old 60-watt incandescent gave about 800 lumens, and an LED gives the same 800 on about 9 watts. LEDs turn power into light up to 90 percent more efficiently than incandescent bulbs.

What you need

• The old bulb, or its wattage and base
• The Lighting Facts label on each box you're comparing

Steps

1. 1

   Note the old bulb's wattage

   It's printed on the bulb or inside the fixture.

   2 min

2. 2

   Turn it into lumens

   For the light of a 60-watt bulb, look for about 800 lumens. The lumens are printed on the bulb and the box.

   2 min

3. 3

   Read the label on the box

   The Lighting Facts label lists the brightness in lumens, the yearly energy cost, the expected life in years, the light's color, the wattage, and whether the bulb contains mercury.

   3 min

4. 4

   Pick the color

   The label shows where the light falls on a scale from warm, which is more yellow, to cool, which is more blue. Warm light is closest to an old incandescent.

   2 min

5. 5

   Compare the yearly cost

   Among bulbs with the brightness you want, compare the yearly energy cost on the label. An ENERGY STAR logo means the bulb meets that program's standards for efficiency and performance.

   3 min

6. 6

   Turn it on

   Fit the new bulb and switch it on. It should look about as bright as the old one, in the color the label showed.

   1 min

How long an LED lasts

LEDs rarely burn out. They dim slowly instead, and an LED's rated life is the point where its light is expected to have dropped by 30 percent. Heat wears them down most. The hotter an LED runs, the faster its light fades. ENERGY STAR bulbs are tested to show they handle their heat through their rated life.

Why LEDs look different

An LED sends its light in one direction, where an incandescent bulb or a CFL sends it every way. That's part of why LEDs are efficient, and why it takes careful design to make an LED bulb that lights a whole room evenly. An incandescent bulb, by contrast, gives off 90 percent of its energy as heat.

Old CFLs

Compact fluorescent bulbs contain mercury, so clean up and throw away a broken one carefully. Each CFL is printed with epa.gov/cfl, the EPA's page on recycling and disposal.