Lights
Lights for the home are lamps, fixtures and the bulbs that go in them, including cordless table lamps that run on a rechargeable battery. With no cord to plug in, a cordless lamp can go on a dining table, a shelf or a patio far from an outlet.
How to choose Lights
- Lumens. Brightness is measured in lumens, not watts. About 450 lumens matches an old 40 watt bulb, and 800 matches a 60 watt bulb.
- Lighting Facts. A bulb box lists brightness, yearly energy cost, expected life, light appearance and wattage, so two bulbs can be compared side by side.
- Rated life. ENERGY STAR bulbs last at least 15 times longer than standard ones, and residential LEDs up to 25 times longer than incandescents.
About Lights
Home lights are lamps and bulbs, rated on the package for how much light they give, what color it is and how much power they draw. An LED sends its light in one direction, so a lamp built around one needs fewer reflectors and diffusers to aim it. LEDs still make heat, which a heat sink draws away, and the hotter an LED runs, the faster its light fades.
A cordless lamp adds one more thing to care for, its lithium-ion battery. Charge it the way the maker directs, and keep the charging cable that came with it. When the battery no longer holds a charge, it goes to a battery recycler rather than the trash.
At a glance
- Main types
- Table lamps, cordless lamps, LED bulbs
- Label terms
- Lumens, watts, light appearance, estimated life
- Also called
- Lamps, lighting
Lights questions
How do you dispose of a rechargeable lamp battery?
Lithium-ion batteries, and devices that hold them, should never go in household trash or curbside recycling, where crushing can start a fire. Take them to a battery recycler or a household hazardous waste collection point. Tape over the terminals or seal each battery in its own plastic bag before you drop it off.
Do LED lamps get hot?
Less than an incandescent bulb, which releases 90 percent of its energy as heat. LEDs still make some heat, which a heat sink built into the bulb draws away. That is why LED lighting can use up to 90 percent less energy than traditional bulbs, by the Department of Energy's count. It also means a lamp with an LED stays cooler to the touch.
What is color temperature on a light?
It describes the color of a light by comparing it with the glow of an object heated to a given temperature. Labels turn that into a simple light appearance scale running from warm, more yellow, to cool, more blue. The Lighting Facts label on the box shows where a bulb sits on that scale.
Sources: US Department of Energy; ENERGY STAR; US Environmental Protection Agency.
