For years people have chosen light bulbs by the watts. It was a general conception that the higher the wattage the brighter the light.

In the days of incandescent bulbs, those yellowish bulbs that we grew up knowing, we measured brightness against watts, we would be forgiven for doing that because it was right to a very large extent. With the CFL (compact fluorescent light) which we commonly referred to as energy saving bulb the case is totally different.
Watts is simply a measure of how much electricity a bulb consumed, watts is not a measure of how bright a light is, so what then measures the brightness of light. Brightness is measured in lumens, it measures the amount of light a bulb gives off. When we go off to the store to buy a replacement bulb what should be going through our mind.
First and foremost, there are tons of substandard energy saving bulbs in the market, these are designed to be pocket saving bulbs, but absolutely trash , but in a country like ours, we have become used to trash that it now taste like salad and yoghurt.

Sorry for digressing, the federal trade commission has worked with manufacturers to develop a new label to help consumers purchasing energy saving bulb. The labels will include brightness (lumen) life expectancy of the bulb, light appearance, energy used. So lets say , 1200 lumens, 8000 hours, E27 cool day light, 20 watts . So when purchasing a bulb, look at the label and look out for these parameters. Most of the substandard energy saving bulbs in the market do not indicate lumens or in some cases the lumens indicated does not tally with the watts. An 11 watts should have between 450-650 lumens, 15 watts should have between 750-950 lumens and a 20 watts bulb should have between 1000-1200 lumens. Sometimes the lumen is expressed as lumen per watts e.g 60lm/watts means an 11watts bulb of 660 lumen,multiply the lumen per watts by the watts of the bulb gives you the lumen value of the bulb.

I took a walk into the market to look at the current bulbs and how the labels are displayed. Too bad many of the labels did not include lumen. Some of the bulbs had the same lumens inscribed on them from the lowest watts to the highest watts, how on earth is that possible? Such should be a red flag of a substandard bulb. I actually bought some of the bulbs which were in 20W and 15W(Without lumen display), and compared them to a 11W bulb (with 650 lumen),and their brightness was no where close to the 11W bulb.

This invariable mean it had a lower lumen and a higher watts. So technically it was a higher watts at a higher price,with little brightness digging hole in my electricity bill.

So when shopping to buy energy saving bulb , lumen is an important factor than watts, a high lumen with the lowest possible watts is a deal. A lumen between 500 and 800 is perfect for indoor usage and above 1000 for outdoor usage. As the watts increases the lumen increases but across brands it doesn't exactly work the same way. Its possible that in shop A , there is an energy saving bulb with 800 lumen + 15watts labelled brand A and in shop b there is an energy saving bulb with 650 lumen + 20 watts labelled brand B , its very obvious that there is no increase in lumen as the watts increases.

In choosing for replace bulb we ought to target a bulb that gives you more lumen using less electricity which in the above example is brand A. The former of course saves you 5 watts of electricity which when you multiply by the number of bulbs by number of hours usage in a day by the number of days in a year, gives you a rough estimate of your savings in a year. I have actually seen a 40watts energy bulb that has a lumen of 420, while another brand has a lumen of 650 but a watts of 11. Guess what ?the 40W bulb was cheaper than the 11watts energy saving bulb . Watts NEVER translates to brightness.

A friend rang me up asking me why a 40W energy saving bulb he purchased wasnt as bright as he expected, i inquired about the lumen display on it and he responded it didnt have such information on display. Stay away from such bulbs, its absolutely dodgy and does not conform to international requirement and standard. Some others bulbs would display high brightness on its first usage but within the first month of usage the brightness would reduce drastically. These are sign and symptoms of substandard energy saving bulbs. There are so many other factors that reduces the life span of an energy saving bulb such as quality of manufacturer design, usage such as turning on and off off frequently plus positioning of the bulb, but that would be another write up for another day.
In conclusion just like dubious people would want to save cost thereby reducing the quality of a product, same has become applicable on the quality of bulbs in the market. You might be wondering are there good quality bulbs in existence and i say to you yes there is.

Catch you on my next writeup on energy saving bulbs and exposure to mecury , is it for real or just one hell of conspiracy theory ?

Educative but next time leave space between sentences and paragraps.

It's difficult to read this article

mrsage:
Educative but next time leave space between sentences and paragraps.

It's difficult to read this article

Thanks for the constructive criticism