Depends on how the bulb is build. The important factors are
light temperature: color tone; the temperature at which we would perceive a black body radiator to be of the same color
color rendition index: how good its light spectrum is compared to a black body, meaning if it doesn’t miss any frequencies which we would perceive; incandescent bulbs have 100, good LEDs about 90, and currently average at 80 for living room LED bulbs
lumen/watt: efficiency as in perceived brightness per watt; not efficiency as in electric energy → photons conversion
Most old-style incandescent bulbs have a simple build, and higher watt bulbs usually have a higher color temperature, and somewhat better efficiency. So, 4 60W would be severly different from 1 240W (such bulbs have been sold in the past, though not anymore; people prefer halogen for that now, because higher temperature incandescent bulbs usually have a much shorter life).
Halogen bulbs (I am always talking “quarz halogen” here; without Wikipedia I wouldn’t have known others exist) are usually build for a specific temperature, and then you buy the wattage/brightness in lumen you want (where I live practically all halogen bulbs come in 2900 +/- 200 K); so you buy spot with 2900K, and have available everything from 10W to 40W, or a 300W “stick”, again with 2900 K. Higher color temperature are available, but usually not at your first supermarket. BTW, you get around 4900 lumen for a 240W halogen stick.
With LEDs and CFLs everything gets fucking crazy. Whatever color temperature you prefer, don’t get below a CRI of 85. It makes pictures look crazy, and after a while you want to rip out your eyes. 90 is really good, for professional photo work only 100 is 100.
Another guide for room lighting (personal experience): 2 klm at 20m² is just a bit more than cozy, 5 klm per 20m² are good enough (you can read, learn, work), but not office style. If the OP means “small room” at about 15 m², he should have the equivalent of 12 klm at 20m², which sounds about right for “feels brighter than winter outside”, but it would not be (at 47 degrees north, that is).
Although having real bright light matters, to feel brighter you might want to make contrast. Your eyes/brain tell you “less bright” if everything has the same luminosity (that is the reason why on a cloudy day it feels darker on the outside than in your apartment, but as soon as you take a photograph you recognize it isn’t). So: Get a dark spot somewhere.
Also note that sales of incadescent bulbs stronger than 60W are now forbidden in the EU and perhaps even some non-EU countries because of environmental concerns (incadescent bulbs being fairly inefficient at converting electricity to light). I used to import 200W bulbs from Russia to EU before they were banned in Russia as well.
Hi, that’s technically incorrect. It’s forbidden to sell them as a general home light source, it’s legal to sell them for special uses.
The net result is that you can still buy them everywhere (supermarkets, online, etc), only they’re labeled as a “shock-resistant light bulb, not for home use” or as a “glowing electrical heater”. The price is up about 5% and quality is slightly lower (shorter life) as now they’re all from China, local factories were unfortunately closed following the ban.
Overall, it’s a ridiculously dead law.
If you live in eu country and you really can’t buy them locally (which would be really weird), I guess I could buy some and send them to you
I could probably buy them locally if I tried enough but they are certainly not everywhere. The “glowing heater” versions, when found, are often darkly coloured to reduce the glow to a level which makes them useless as light source. The law isn’t completely dead around here. My main problem is that it is difficult to obtain an equivalent of a 200W bulb, since such strong fluorescent or LED sources aren’t generally available.
I would expect this to be the case in Germany, but not in Czech Republic, as I have now looked at your profile. In Poland they’re as available as before the ban and the only difference is a “not for home use” sticker added or printed on a box… when laws are stupid it’s good they’re being ignored.
I’ve populated my house with 30W 6400K fluorescents, which claim to be 150W equivalent. Put two of those next to each other. (One is bright enough for me in practice, fwiw.)
Depends on how the bulb is build. The important factors are
light temperature: color tone; the temperature at which we would perceive a black body radiator to be of the same color
color rendition index: how good its light spectrum is compared to a black body, meaning if it doesn’t miss any frequencies which we would perceive; incandescent bulbs have 100, good LEDs about 90, and currently average at 80 for living room LED bulbs
lumen/watt: efficiency as in perceived brightness per watt; not efficiency as in electric energy → photons conversion
Most old-style incandescent bulbs have a simple build, and higher watt bulbs usually have a higher color temperature, and somewhat better efficiency. So, 4 60W would be severly different from 1 240W (such bulbs have been sold in the past, though not anymore; people prefer halogen for that now, because higher temperature incandescent bulbs usually have a much shorter life).
Halogen bulbs (I am always talking “quarz halogen” here; without Wikipedia I wouldn’t have known others exist) are usually build for a specific temperature, and then you buy the wattage/brightness in lumen you want (where I live practically all halogen bulbs come in 2900 +/- 200 K); so you buy spot with 2900K, and have available everything from 10W to 40W, or a 300W “stick”, again with 2900 K. Higher color temperature are available, but usually not at your first supermarket. BTW, you get around 4900 lumen for a 240W halogen stick.
With LEDs and CFLs everything gets fucking crazy. Whatever color temperature you prefer, don’t get below a CRI of 85. It makes pictures look crazy, and after a while you want to rip out your eyes. 90 is really good, for professional photo work only 100 is 100.
Another guide for room lighting (personal experience): 2 klm at 20m² is just a bit more than cozy, 5 klm per 20m² are good enough (you can read, learn, work), but not office style. If the OP means “small room” at about 15 m², he should have the equivalent of 12 klm at 20m², which sounds about right for “feels brighter than winter outside”, but it would not be (at 47 degrees north, that is).
Although having real bright light matters, to feel brighter you might want to make contrast. Your eyes/brain tell you “less bright” if everything has the same luminosity (that is the reason why on a cloudy day it feels darker on the outside than in your apartment, but as soon as you take a photograph you recognize it isn’t). So: Get a dark spot somewhere.
Also note that sales of incadescent bulbs stronger than 60W are now forbidden in the EU and perhaps even some non-EU countries because of environmental concerns (incadescent bulbs being fairly inefficient at converting electricity to light). I used to import 200W bulbs from Russia to EU before they were banned in Russia as well.
Hi, that’s technically incorrect. It’s forbidden to sell them as a general home light source, it’s legal to sell them for special uses. The net result is that you can still buy them everywhere (supermarkets, online, etc), only they’re labeled as a “shock-resistant light bulb, not for home use” or as a “glowing electrical heater”. The price is up about 5% and quality is slightly lower (shorter life) as now they’re all from China, local factories were unfortunately closed following the ban. Overall, it’s a ridiculously dead law.
If you live in eu country and you really can’t buy them locally (which would be really weird), I guess I could buy some and send them to you
An account called “cheapviagra” that makes (so far) only useful, intelligent, relevant comments? Whatnow?
Mission.
Fucking.
Accomplished.
I could probably buy them locally if I tried enough but they are certainly not everywhere. The “glowing heater” versions, when found, are often darkly coloured to reduce the glow to a level which makes them useless as light source. The law isn’t completely dead around here. My main problem is that it is difficult to obtain an equivalent of a 200W bulb, since such strong fluorescent or LED sources aren’t generally available.
I would expect this to be the case in Germany, but not in Czech Republic, as I have now looked at your profile. In Poland they’re as available as before the ban and the only difference is a “not for home use” sticker added or printed on a box… when laws are stupid it’s good they’re being ignored.
http://img30.otofotki.pl/obrazki/no811_100w-pdelko.jpg :)
I’ve populated my house with 30W 6400K fluorescents, which claim to be 150W equivalent. Put two of those next to each other. (One is bright enough for me in practice, fwiw.)