How to Determine the Brightness of an LED Light
Updated 06/22/2017 | Published 06/21/2017
Question:
I am buying some LED marker lights ,I have the option to buy 8-14 volt or 12-30volt units. On a 12 volt system which will be the brightest please
asked by: Robert
Helpful Expert Reply:
When looking at LED lights what you will want to look at to determine the brightness is how many lumens that it outputs. Lumens is the LED version of Watts for incandescent bulbs. The voltage ranges that you mentioned have to do with what kind of volt system you are dealing with and if the lights are compatible. The units rated with a range of 12-30 volts might end up being slightly dimmer at times on a 12V system since voltage can fluctuate a little bit.
Since both of the options that you have look like they will work with a 12V system I recommend just comparing the Lumens and choosing whichever is brighter. You can use this chart as a way to kind of gauge how bright Lumens actually are:
Lumen vs. Watts Chart
40-watt incandescent bulb = 450 lumens
60-watt incandescent bulb = 800 lumens
100-watt incandescent bulb = 1600 lumens
