How Many Lumens is a 100W Bulb?

A 100W bulb produces 1300 lumens of light.

However, 100-watt light bulbs are legacy products now being replaced by efficient LED as the leading alternative.

So what is the 100W replacement in LED and how do you select it?

100 Watt in Lumens

The lumen brightness from a 100W bulb is dependent on the type of light bulb being used.

• 100W of incandescent light creates approximately 1300 lumens
• The lumens equivalent to an incandescent 100W bulb is a 13W LED bulb

So to find the replacement, you need to know how much light (lumens) the old 100-watt bulb produced to find the equivalent conversion.

Importance of Lumens to Watts Efficacy

The W in 100W refers to wattage. This is the amount of power that a light bulb uses. The higher the wattage, the more power the light bulb uses.

Lumens measure the amount of light that a light bulb emits. The higher the lumens, the brighter the light bulb is.

The more lumens (lm) created with less power (W), the greater the lumens/watts ratio and the greater the efficiency of the bulb.

For example,

As LED creates 1300 lm using 13W of power, 100W of power used with LED would create 10,000 lumens.

The lumen delivery from a light bulb is entirely dependent on the bulb technology choice. LED has fast become the more efficient lighting technology available today.

How to Find a 100W Equivalent Light Bulb

When looking at an LED light bulb, the lumen output will be listed on the packaging. This is how you can directly compare the brightness of an LED light bulb to that of a traditional incandescent light bulb.

For example, the packaging of an A19 LED light bulb might say that it is an 1300 lumen light bulb. This means that it emits as much light as an incandescent light bulb that uses 100 watts of power.

To find a 60W equivalent LED light bulb, simply look for an LED light bulb with an lumen output of 1300 lumens.

You might also see a light bulb that is advertised as a 100 watt replacement LED light bulb. This simply means that it emits as much light as a traditional 100 watt incandescent light.

For more brightness comparisons refer to our lumens chart

What About Kelvins?

You might also see the color temperature of a light bulb listed in Kelvins (K) on the packaging. The color temperature is simply a measure of the color of the light that is emitted by a light bulb.

The Kelvin scale is used to measure the color temperature of a light bulb and influences the conversion of brightness. A lower Kelvin value means that the light appears more yellow while a higher Kelvin value means that the light appears more blue.

For example, a light bulb with a color temperature of 2700K emits a warm, yellow light while a light bulb with a color temperature of 5000K emits a cool, blue white light.

Cooler white light will appear brighter than warmer light, even if the lumen output is the same. This is because our eyes are more sensitive to blue and green colors than yellow and red colors.

Kelvin color temperatures of 3000K (yellowish white), 4000K (white), 5000K (cool white), and 6000K (daylight) are all popular choices for LED light bulbs.

Andrew Orange, the owner of Orange Lighting qualified and worked as an interior designer in 1993 before specialising in lighting working on high profile projects based in London. Since starting Orange Lighting Ltd in 2003 he has been sharing his knowledge and unique teaching style mostly to his designer clients, offering practical real life advice born from running a busy consultancy and lighting supply business. Launching in 2020, his blog has evolved into Quick & Easy Lighting, curating some 25 years design experience into making the lighting choice and design process achievable and easy to understand for all.