Glossary
Getting lost in all the terms?
Do not underestimate the individual parameters of light bulbs. Knowing your stuff will save you money. Retlux tries to help as much as possible. By using symbols we try to indicate in the easiest way matching product that best fits your situation. Various differences in parameters can be seen between individual technologies, for example a CFL energy-saving light bulb has a completely different lifespan than a LED light bulb, which might be a bit more expensive, but at the end saves much more energy. Therefore, we would like to describe the parameters of Retlux symbols in more detail for your better orientation.
Colour temperature |
2700 K warm white |
- CCT (colour temperature), the higher the number, the cooler the light (a standard
light bulb has around 2700 Kelvins). |
Power input |
20W |
- Indicates the amount of energy consumed by the light source. |
Voltage |
220 - 240V |
- Operating voltage the light source can be connected to. |
Socket |
E27 |
- The type and shape of the light fixture |
Luminous flux |
1155 lm |
- The higher the value, the more light is emitted. Measured in lumens (lm) |
Lenght |
105 mm |
- The length of the light source from the mount to its tip. |
Width |
56 mm |
- The diameter in the widest point. |
Lifetime |
8000 hours |
- Approximate lifetime before the burn blows or before light output
is significantly reduced.. |
Current |
150 mA |
- Electrical current that flows through the light source during operation. |
Equivalent to standard light bulb
approximate wattage of a standard light bulb that the energy-saving light source replaces. However, this does not necessarily have to be the case for LED light bulbs, for standard light bulbs are lit practically around the entire perimeter and part of the emitted light is reflected from the ceiling and wall, which absorbs the light. Whereby a LED light bulb shines in a 120-180 degree angle and the light is entirely emitted into the lit area, and therefore you will get the feeling there is "more light" in the room.
RA colour rendering index
The RA colour rendering index (CRI) evaluates the colour of illumination provided by a light source compared to sunlight. Ra=0 indicates colours cannot be distinguished for the given illumination. On the contrary, Ra=100 indicates entirely natural colour rendering. So the higher the value of Ra, the more natural the colours in the illuminated area will appear.
Compact light bulb
Compact fluorescent bulbs are widely referred to as "energy-saving bulbs". Simply put, a compact fluorescent bulb is basically a miniature version of the standard fluorescent tube made to fit common fixtures.
LED
LED is an abbreviation for "light emitting diode", and therefore refers to a semiconductor which emits (creates) light when electric current flows through it. It does not contain any glass parts that could break, or fibres that could burn or snap. A therefore LED light bulbs are exceptionally resistant to impacts and vibrations.
Mercury content
older or cheaper types of compact fluorescent bulbs contained a large amount of liquid mercury, which was very dangerous.
RETLUX compact fluorescent bulbs contain only a little amount of mercury, which is additionally in solid form, increasing safety and making its subsequent recycling much easier.
LED light bulbs do not contain any mercury.
Socket
the part of the light bulb that is mounted into the fixture and through which the light bulb is powered.
There are many types of mounts, the most common however are Edison mounts E14 and E27, also bayonet mount GU10 and Bi-pin mount GU5.3 (MR16).
To make the selection process easier, all RETLUX light sources have mount indicated with an icon on the front side of package
hint:
E14 - small fixtures and lamps for 230 V (mignon)
E27 - the most wide spread mount in fixtures and chandeliers for 230 V
GU10 - ceiling point fixtures for 230 V
GU5.3/MR16 - ceiling point fixtures for 12 V
Number of switch cycles
this value indicates the approximate amount of times the light source is switched on. This parameter can help choosing a suitable light source according to its placement in the household.
Use with dimmer
thanks to relatively complex electronics inside energy-saving light sources, not all can be operated with electronic dimmers. This option can be easily seen on the package of each RETLUX product.
Power input
this simply tells us how much energy the device consumes. The precise wording is that the Power input is a physical quantity that indicates the amount of energy consumed over a unit of time. It is labelled with the letter P and its basic unit is the Watt (W). The power input is not that important for energy-saving light sources, a more important parameter is the luminous flux.
Luminous flux
The unit of luminous flux is the lumen (lm). It indicates the "amount" of visible light emitted by a light source. The higher the value, the more light is emitted. This parameter right now is the most important for selecting a light bulb, so keep in mind to choose according to the luminous flux and not according to the power input as you were accustomed to with standard light bulbs.
Colour temperature
also referred to as the chromaticity temperature, characterizes the white light spectrum and its unit is the Kelvin (K). For light sources we usually come across colour temperatures ranging from 1500K to 8000K. For example 2700K is white light similar to that of a standard light bulb, 4000K is white light and 6500K is cold white light.
Examples of colour temperature:
1200 K: candle
2700 K: standard light bulb
5000 K: common daylight
6500 K: standardized daylight
7000 K: slightly cloudy
8000 K: overcast