LED Deck lights

[The Medway Handyman]

How does one compare the light output of an LED light to a normal bulb?

I'm looking at installing some recessed deck lights & TLC have them is 0.3w,

0.6w etc - which doesn't sound very bright to me.

[dennis]

Its not.. you could go to B&Q where they have them on display and look.

I have a ~1W led in a torch and it is OK but nowhere near as bright at a two D cell maglite.

[Bob Minchin]

You are considering power input. Look up the light output data measured in candela or lumens. Bob

[The Medway Handyman]

Alas they only list the wattage - hence the question.

[Derek Geldard]

The results are very subjective. From each LED in the cluster the beam is quite narrow, it gets scattered a bit in the plastic bezel, but then in a multi LED array the LEDs are usually set to diverge from each other.

They are very good at making glass ornaments sparkle in a display case. Not much good at lighting up 8 metres of pathway at the side or front of the house.

Poss OK for instance if used to mark out a "Flare Path" between 2 sets of steps on a deck.

IOW they are OK if their intended function function is to be there lit, they are not really man enough at this stage to illuminate something else.

HTH

DG

[dwtowner]

By comparing the light output - lumens is a common unit. Lumens give the actual light output but don't take into account light spread. The related measure of lux gives lumens/unit area.

Given the input, and bulb type, you can make a rough guess at the lumens output. Incandescents are around 10-18 lumens/watt, Fluorescent start at about 60 lumens/watt, but much higher for better quality tubes. Older LEDS are 20-40 lumens/watt. Modern high-flux LEDS are around 80 lumens/watt, and increasing monthly.

No lumen outputs listed for those that I can see, but 0.5W is on the low side. Even with a very good LEDs (e.g., a Seoul P4) this would be only 30 lumens. TLC lights won't use such good LEDs though, s you might get 10 lumens? For comparison, a 60W incandescent is about 700 lumens.

dan.

[Pete C]

In my /humble/ opinion lighting up the garden with lots of bright lights is very 'townie/groundforce/makeover' styleee, subtle lighting is *far* better.

cheers, Pete.