Sheer lumenacy: EU to replace watts with continental 'lumens'

[Bruno@MT]

Before people start dumping on the EU government...
It actually makes good sense to do this, or at least to also mandate the light output.

Because we all 'know' how bright a 60 bulb is. But how does that compare to halogen lamps? or energy friendly iridescent lamps, or?

Those new energy friendly bulbs are a hit over here, but they come with labels like '60 watt equivalent' or similar. So adding scientific notation for light output is just good sense. That way, people will actually know what they are getting. It'll take some time for people to adapt, but that should not be a reason not to do it. We had the same with going from Belgian francs to Euros. Things change. Get over it.

If we were not open to change, we'd still cling to silly things like the empirical measurement system which has no concept of easy conversion between orders of magnitude, rather than having to work with feet, thumbs, knots, inches, hogsheads, gallons and other quaint concepts.

 

[Carol]

I don't think its a bad idea to show brightness in lumens. In fact, I wish there were more ratings in lumens (tactical flashlights, for example).

But the article said the wattage rating was going to be replaced with lumens, and I don't agree with that. "Equivalent to a 60 watt bulb" is going to be extremely helpful during the transition. But the consumer still has the right to know the wattage drawn to light the bulb, because that is what the consumer is going to be paying fo...the power companies bill in (kilo)watt-hours.

 

[Bruno@MT]

I don't think its a bad idea to show brightness in lumens. In fact, I wish there were more ratings in lumens (tactical flashlights, for example).

But the article said the wattage rating was going to be replaced with lumens, and I don't agree with that. "Equivalent to a 60 watt bulb" is going to be extremely helpful during the transition. But the consumer still has the right to know the wattage drawn to light the bulb, because that is what the consumer is going to be paying fo...the power companies bill in (kilo)watt-hours.

Having not read the bill itself, I think you'll find that wattage will be replaced with lumens for the purpose of specifying light output (which up to now was fudged by using waatage).

Us Europeans are pretty energy aware (for economic reasons), and people will still want to know how much energy a lightbulb uses. But that should / will be specified under energy consumption which will still be used.

For example, if I buy one of those new energy friendly bulbs, the packaging specifies in small print: '8W' and in large print '60 Watt equivalent light output' or something similar. It is the latter part which will now be changed to use lumens. the '8W' part will still be there.

 

[tellner]

It actually makes perfect sense. Wattage is a measure of how much power it draws. Lumens - or candlepower for the chronically out of date - are a measure of how much light is actually given off. That is a much more useful number. I have LED devices which use practically no electricity. They give off more light than some of my conventional bulbs. I used to have an infrared illuminator. It gave off no visible light at all. But it sucked down plenty of power.

Confusing? Only for the first few minutes. Then when you understand that "lumens" means "amount of light" you'll wonder how you got by the other way.