Comparing lumens between LED and CFL

llamafilm

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Jan 25, 2017
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I'm a long time lurker on these forums, and finally made an account to post a question. My house came with ugly CFL bulbs, which I am replacing with LEDs. I notice a huge difference in brightness, and I'm just wondering, in general, is there something different about lumen ratings on CFL vs LED? For example, the old CFL is rated at 26W, 1800 lumens, 4100K. The new LED is rated at 10W, 800 lumens, 2700K. The LED is roughly twice the brightness, as measured by my Sekonic meter. The house was built 6 years ago, so that's how old the CFLs are. These LEDs are about 1 year old. I suppose they both dim slightly with age but this seems pretty drastic.
 

JoakimFlorence

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Well one thing, CFLs often take about a minute to warm up and come to full brightness after you turn them on. And many of the lower quality CFLs start putting out less light as they get older. I remember there was one study that found they put out 30% less light after 2 years than they did when they were new.

Something else to consider, the light spread from LED bulbs has a tendency to be more concentrated towards one direction, whereas the light from CFLs is a lot more diffuse.

You are right, many people describe the light quality from CFL bulbs as ugly. This is probably because, if you looked at the spectra, the "blue light" is actually coming from a 436nm mercury line, which can be a little harsh because of the short wavelength. The blue peak from LED is closer to 450-455.
 
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llamafilm

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Jan 25, 2017
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I took measurements in between fixtures, not directly underneath one, to try to eliminate beam angle as a factor. I did wait several minutes for the bulbs to reach full output. The other problem with CFL is they have a significant green spike.
 

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