Whether it's for home decoration or commercial fitting - out, lamps are essential decorative materials/furniture. They can not only provide lighting but also serve as decorations. According to the author's years of industry experience, when the public chooses lighting lamps, they usually pay more attention to the brand, price, and appearance. From the perspective of the lamp light source, what they care more about is just the light source type and wattage.

Why is this the case for living room lighting? Actually, it's very simple - just because of ignorance and laziness! We often say that there are many key factors for lamps, such as price, appearance, material, light source type, color temperature, color rendering index, beam angle, etc. Moreover, we also have to consider the rationality of lighting design. It's indeed too many and too difficult. Let's not talk about others. Let's just focus on what most of us care about: the wattage of the light source.

Taking home spaces as an example, we have made an LED lamp wattage and area comparison chart, specifying the lamp wattages required for various spaces in the home corresponding to different area sizes. It's simple and easy to understand:

Here, we will elaborate on each space separately:

The living room generally occupies a relatively large area in the whole house and is also the main activity area. Therefore, sufficient illuminance is required, and the wattage requirement is relatively high. At the same time, a bright and transparent lighting environment will also make the living room look more spacious and grand. So, we generally recommend choosing a living room lamp wattage in the range of 60 - 450w.

The bedroom is only for sleeping and resting. Therefore, the light needs to be soft, not dazzling, and free of glare. Such an environment makes it easier for people to fall asleep. So, we usually do not recommend making the bedroom lighting too bright. Depending on the area, choosing a light source wattage in the range of 13 - 50w is sufficient.

To some extent, kitchen lighting also belongs to task lighting. But the difference is that the task area of kitchen lighting is relatively small, and the light is required to be relatively concentrated. Because subtle actions like cutting vegetables and washing vegetables must be accurately lit to avoid unnecessary unhygienic or even dangerous situations. We recommend that the local task lighting in the kitchen be controlled at 8 - 38w, which is more appropriate. And what's more important is actually the lighting layout position in the kitchen, rather than the wattage selection.

Due to the generally weaker eyesight of the elderly, the light emitted by the same lamp that the elderly can perceive is significantly less than that perceived by young people. So, if we want the elderly to feel normal brightness, we need to increase the lamp wattage on the basis of what young people use. Therefore, a 13 - 50w light source is sufficient for a young person's bedroom, but an elderly room requires 25 - 100w.

Contrary to the elderly, children's retinas are not fully developed. Therefore, overly bright light will have a negative impact on their eyes. So, the light in the children's room doesn't need to be too bright; it can even be a bit dim, and it doesn't matter. Usually, we will choose a lamp light source for the children's room in the range of 13 - 50w.

Then, some people may say that they just like energy - saving lamps, don't like LED light sources, and even want to use incandescent lamps. At this time, what wattage should be chosen for the light source? How to convert the wattages among incandescent lamps, energy - saving lamps, and LED lamps? Don't worry. We have another chart below to tell you the wattage conversion methods among these three common light sources:

Of course, it should be noted that the recommended lamp wattages mentioned above and the wattage conversions between light sources all refer to the wattages of the light sources installed in artistic lamps (such as chandeliers, ceiling lamps, wall lamps, table lamps, etc.), not bare light source lighting. We also do not recommend using bare light source lighting as it is very harmful to the eyes.

In addition, there is a more core parameter that affects the brightness of a lamp besides wattage, called luminous efficacy, also known as luminous efficiency (what luminous efficacy is will not be explained in detail here. The author has mentioned it in other articles. If you are interested, you can check them out).

Under the same wattage, the higher the luminous efficacy, the greater the illuminance, and vice versa. So, when we choose an LED light source, we must check its luminous efficacy.

In addition, the suggestions in the charts of this article are just suggestions and can only be said to be relatively reasonable. We also need to choose the light source according to the usage habits of ourselves and our family members. Some people just prefer it to be brighter, and some people like it to be a bit dimmer. As long as it's not too far off, there's no big problem, and there's no need to be overly strict.

Lighting design is not just about choosing lamps. It is a job that combines technology and art. If you really don't have the time and professionalism to DIY lighting design, you might as well find a lighting designer! JCLGL Lighting We can provide you with the most professional lighting solutions. If you have any related questions, you can directly contact the chat box at the bottom right corner, or call us directly or send an email to our address (support@jclgl-led.com).