Sources of Light | Glossary

INCANDESCENT LIGHT BULBS

The conventional incandescent light bulb invented by Thomas Edison is a “standard” bulb that radiates light by heating a tungsten filament. Incandescent lamps must generate a lot of heat to provide sufficient light. Although incandescent light bulbs have long been the main source of light, about 95% of all the electricity used to operate an incandescent light bulb is wasted as heat.

LED

LED lights are much more energy efficient than incandescent light bulbs, with up to 80% higher efficiency. In short, less energy is lost in heat to produce the same amount of light and they last longer. LED light bulbs are now available in almost every style and size and can be used to replace incandescent light bulbs with the same base. If a light is connected to a wall dimmer, simply make sure that the LED light bulb is compatible with the selected dimmer.

DIM-TO-WARM

“Dim-to-Warm” is technical jargon to mean that reducing the intensity of a light produces warmer tones. For instance, the LED strips provided with the series of Emilie linear fixtures were custom-made for our workshop, allowing to reduce or increase light intensity to suit the desired ambiance.

LUMEN

Lumens are a measure of the amount of light emitted by a bulb. The higher the lumens, the stronger the light.

DEGREES KELVIN

Some light bulbs produce a very white, cool light, while others radiate a warmer, yellow or orange light. This is called the colour temperature of light, or degrees Kelvin (K), which is measured using what is referred to as the Kelvin index. The higher the degrees Kelvin, the whiter the light.

WATT

Watt is the unit of measurement used to indicate the amount of energy used by a light bulb. The fewer the watts indicated, the less energy the light bulb consumes. Therefore, more energy will be needed to create more light. For example, LEDs are said to be more energy efficient than incandescent light bulbs, because they use fewer watts to emit the same amount of light. As required by UL standards with which our products comply, all Tungsten light fixtures are labelled so as to indicate maximum allowable wattage.