The Edit — Home & Garden
Light Bulbs: Lumens, Kelvin and the Number Nobody Reads
Watt equivalence is a hangover from incandescent bulbs and lumens replaced it years ago. The figure that decides whether a room looks right is colour rendering index, and it is the one most boxes leave off.
This guide is research-led: we have not handled these units ourselves. If you buy through our links we may earn a commission — it never changes a pick. How we choose
A watt measures electricity drawn. A lumen measures light produced. Incandescent bulbs converted the first into the second so consistently that people learned to shop in watts, and LED broke that relationship permanently.
The quick list
Every pick, in order. Jump to the full test on any of them.
- Highest rated and most-reviewed
Energetic 24-Pack A19 LED Bulb, 60 W Equivalent, 5000K
4.7 across 21,659 ratings, top of the page on both measures, at 5000K — which is the colour temperature to think hardest about.
4.7from 21,659 verified reviews - Solves the kelvin problem
Feit Electric A19 LED Bulb, 60 W EQ, 5 Colour Temperatures
Selectable colour temperature on the bulb itself, which removes the decision this whole page is about.
4.7from 599 verified reviews MAXvolador 12-Pack A19 LED Bulb, 100 W Equivalent
3,763 ratings at the 100 W equivalent tier, which is roughly 1,500 lumens and the figure to check rather than the equivalence.
4.6from 3,763 verified reviewsFeit Electric A19 LED Bulbs, 60 W Eq, Dimmable Daylight
Dimmable and daylight, a combination worth checking against your existing dimmer before ordering 8 of them.
4.5from 489 verified reviews
Lumens are the brightness figure
Every bulb states lumens, and it is the only honest brightness number. Watt equivalence is a translation kept on the box because people still ask for a 60-watt bulb.
The rough conversions are worth memorising once. A 40 W incandescent is about 450 lumens, a 60 W about 800, a 75 W about 1,100 and a 100 W about 1,600.
An LED producing 800 lumens draws around 8 or 9 watts, which is the efficiency that made the change worthwhile and also the reason watt equivalence had to be invented.
| Old bulb | Lumens | LED watts |
|---|---|---|
| 40 W | About 450 | 5 to 6 |
| 60 W | About 800 | 8 to 9 |
| 75 W | About 1,100 | 11 to 13 |
| 100 W | About 1,600 | 14 to 17 |
MAXvolador 12-Pack A19 LED Bulb, 100 W Equivalent
3,763 ratings at the 100 W equivalent tier, which is roughly 1,500 lumens and the figure to check rather than the equivalence.
Current price shown on Amazon. We may earn a commission.
| Output | 100 W equivalent tier |
|---|---|
| Pack | 12 |
| Use | Large or dark rooms |
The 100 W equivalent tier is roughly 1,500 to 1,600 lumens, and that is the figure to check on the box rather than the equivalence printed beside it.
3,763 ratings. Brightness falls with the square of distance, so a high ceiling needs materially more lumens than the same room with a low one to reach the same light on a table.
Buy it if
- A room that has always felt underlit
- High ceilings, where light falls off with distance
Don't buy it if
- You want a soft, low-level light
Kelvin is mood, and it is the one people get wrong
Correlated colour temperature describes the colour of the light, counterintuitively: low numbers are warm and orange, high numbers are cool and blue.
2700K is the warm yellow of an old incandescent bulb. It suits living rooms and bedrooms and it is what most people mean by cosy.
3000K is a warm white, slightly crisper, and it works in kitchens and bathrooms without feeling clinical.
4000K is neutral, good for a workspace or a garage.
5000K and above is daylight, and it is where people go wrong. Twenty-four daylight bulbs bought for a whole house turn a living room into an office, and the bulbs are not faulty.
Mixing temperatures within one room is the other common error. Two bulbs a thousand kelvin apart in the same space read as one of them being broken.
Energetic 24-Pack A19 LED Bulb, 60 W Equivalent, 5000K
4.7 across 21,659 ratings, top of the page on both measures, at 5000K — which is the colour temperature to think hardest about.
Current price shown on Amazon. We may earn a commission.
| Colour | 5000K, daylight |
|---|---|
| Pack | 24 |
| Evidence | 21,659 ratings |
4.7 across 21,659 ratings makes this both the highest-rated and most-evidenced bulb here, in a 24-pack at 5000K.
That combination is worth pausing on. A 24-pack is a whole-house purchase, and 5000K is a workspace colour. It is the right buy for a kitchen, garage or basement and the wrong one for the rooms people sit in, and nothing about the rating tells you that.
Buy it if
- You are relamping a whole house at once
- Kitchens, garages and workspaces
Don't buy it if
- These are going in a living room or bedroom
Feit Electric A19 LED Bulb, 60 W EQ, 5 Colour Temperatures
Selectable colour temperature on the bulb itself, which removes the decision this whole page is about.
Current price shown on Amazon. We may earn a commission.
| Colour | 5 selectable temperatures |
|---|---|
| Dimming | Dimmable |
| Watch | 599 ratings |
Selectable colour temperature on the bulb removes the decision entirely, which for anyone uncertain is worth more than a decimal place of efficiency.
599 ratings is a modest base. For a room whose use changes through the day, or for a household that cannot agree, being able to switch between warm and daylight in place is the practical answer.
Buy it if
- You cannot decide, or the room changes use
- You want to try warm and cool in place
Don't buy it if
- You want a deep evidence base
Colour rendering index is the figure that decides how things look
CRI measures how accurately a light source renders colour against a reference, on a scale to 100. Sunlight is 100 by definition.
Below about 80, colours go flat and skin looks grey. Between 80 and 90 is the ordinary domestic range. Above 90 is where food, art and faces look the way they do in daylight.
The catch is that the headline CRI averages 8 pastel test colours and excludes deep red, which is measured separately as R9. A bulb can post a respectable CRI and render red poorly, which is exactly what makes meat, wood and skin look wrong.
Where a box states no CRI at all, assume it is under 80. Manufacturers print the number when it flatters them.
Dimming is a driver problem, not a bulb problem
An LED bulb contains a small power supply, and dimming compatibility is about whether that driver cooperates with the dimmer already on your wall.
Old dimmers were built for incandescent loads and expect far more current than an LED draws. Below the dimmer’s minimum load the result is flicker, buzz, or a bulb that will not go low.
Two rules avoid it. Buy bulbs stated as dimmable, since a non-dimmable LED on a dimmer will fail quickly. And buy 1 bulb before buying 8, because the combination of your dimmer and that driver is the thing being tested.
Feit Electric A19 LED Bulbs, 60 W Eq, Dimmable Daylight
Dimmable and daylight, a combination worth checking against your existing dimmer before ordering 8 of them.
Current price shown on Amazon. We may earn a commission.
| Dimming | Dimmable, stated |
|---|---|
| Colour | Daylight |
| Watch | 489 ratings |
Dimmable and daylight together, in an 8-pack, which is the purchase to make cautiously rather than confidently.
489 ratings. Order one, put it on the actual dimmer in the actual fitting, and run it to the bottom of the range before committing to the other 7.
Buy it if
- The fitting is on a dimmer already
- You want a named brand for a dimmed circuit
Don't buy it if
- Your dimmer is an old incandescent type
What to check on the box
Read lumens for brightness, kelvin for the room, and CRI for whether the room will look right. Then check dimmable if the fitting is on a dimmer.
Buying for a whole house in one pack is where most of the regret happens, because one colour temperature rarely suits every room. The same preference for a measured figure over a marketing one runs through grow lights and PPFD and why every space heater is 1,500 watts.