What is Wattage?

What exactly is Wattage?

It’s a word we’ve all seen a million times on the packaging for everything from light bulbs to kitchen appliances: Wattage. We know that 100W is more than 60W, but what are we actually measuring? Is it brightness? Heat? The cost to run?
Let's clear it up once and for all:

In the simplest terms, a Watt (W) is a unit of power that measures energy consumption. That's it. It tells you how much electrical energy a device needs to operate every second it's turned on.

Think of it like fuel consumption in a car. A car's "litres per 100km" tells you how much fuel it burns to go a certain distance. In the same way, a light bulb's wattage tells you how much electricity it "burns" to stay on.

So, a 100-Watt light bulb uses more energy to run than a 60-Watt light bulb. The key takeaway is this:

Wattage = Energy use, NOT brightness.

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Why we all got confused

Now you might be thinking, "But wait, a 100W bulb was definitely brighter than a 40W one!" And you're absolutely right. So, what gives?

In the "old days" of traditional incandescent bulbs, the technology was very simple and very inefficient. Those bulbs worked by heating a tiny wire until it glowed. To make it glow brighter, you had to send more energy (more watts) through it. Because all incandescent bulbs were equally inefficient, there was a direct and reliable link: more energy in (watts) equaled more light out.

We all learned to associate wattage with brightness, and for decades, that worked just fine.

Then, LEDs changed the game

Modern LED technology is incredibly efficient. It creates light without needing all that heat, meaning it can produce the same amount of light using a tiny fraction of the energy.

Here’s a perfect example: that old 60W incandescent bulb you remember can now be replaced by a 9W LED bulb, and they will be equally bright!

This is why looking at wattage to judge the brightness of an LED is no longer helpful. It's like comparing the fuel consumption of a lorry to that of a scooter – they're just not in the same league.

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What you should look for instead

If wattage only tells you about energy use, how do you know how bright a bulb will be? The answer is a different unit: Lumens (lm).

Lumens are a direct measurement of visible light output. It’s the true measure of brightness. It's as simple as this:

• To know how much ENERGY a bulb will use (and how much it will cost on your bill), look at the Watts.
• To know how BRIGHT a bulb will be, look at the Lumens.

A Quick Guide for Switching to LEDs

To help you transition, here’s a rough idea of how old incandescent watts translate to modern lumens:

• A 40W bulb is about 450 lumens.
• A 60W bulb is about 800 lumens.
• A 100W bulb is about 1600 lumens.

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Putting it all together

So, there you have it. A Watt isn't some mysterious force; it's simply a measure of how much power a device consumes. Thanks to super-efficient LED technology, a lower wattage is now a good thing! It means you're saving energy and money!

From now on, when you're choosing the perfect light, you'll know exactly what to do. Check the Lumens for brightness and the Watts for energy efficiency. Now you're shopping like a true lighting expert!

If you have any more questions, our lighting experts at Fixerio are ready to help!