When choosing lighting for your home, you come across many names that you may have heard of, but don't necessarily know what they mean. This may be the case with lumens and lux. What are they? When to use them? What is their significance in lighting practice? We will answer all these questions below!
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Lux and lumens as units of light intensity
Lux and lumens are two very important units that are used to describe light. However, they refer to different aspects of its intensity. Lumen (lm) measures the total amount of light emitted by a source, regardless of the directions in which it falls. The more lumens there are, the greater the intensity of the light, so it is brighter. So it is a very important parameter when choosing bulbs or other light sources .
Lux (lx) describes how light is dispersed on a given surface. It determines how many lumens there are per square meter. The calculation is logical - 1 lux is simply 1 lumen per square meter.
As we can see, the difference between these units is noticeable. Lumens refer to the power of the light source, while lux shows how effectively this light illuminates the space. To understand this better, let's use the example of an office, where the required lighting intensity is approximately 500 lx, and compare it with an open space - here the luminous flux can be only 20-50 lx.
What exactly is Lux?
Lux (lx) is a unit of measurement of illuminance in the SI system. Recall that it determines how much light falls on a given surface. Taking this into account, we can therefore say that 1 lux means that 1 lumen of light is scattered on a surface of 1 square meter. Going further - the more lux there is, the greater the intensity of light, the brighter it illuminates the surface.
What is very important - lux does not measure the light source itself, but refers to the space, to how well it is lit. It is no coincidence that it is an important parameter, especially in lighting design in many different spaces and rooms, such as offices, schools, streets, etc. There are places where the brightness of the light must be very high, such as the office mentioned in the previous paragraph (around 500 lx), but also places where excess light is harmful (for example, a bedroom - around 100 lx is enough), so much less of this intensity is needed.
What parameters does the Lumen value describe?
Lumen (lm) defines the total amount of light emitted by a source in every direction. This is a very important parameter describing lighting efficiency. Lumens measure the power of light, regardless of its dispersion, so completely different from lux, which describes the intensity of light on a given surface.
Lumens are particularly important when choosing bulbs or LED sources . Various parameters such as color temperature, specified in Kelvin or energy efficiency play a large role here. They also affect the quality of lighting, but lumens most precisely determine how much light a given source provides us with.
Now we know the difference between lumens and lux, which will make it easier for us to plan the lighting design in interiors.