CFL Vs LED: How Do These Two Compare?
1. LED Vs CFL Brightness
When shopping for a lighting fixture, brightness is always one of the most important factors to consider.
Brightness is often measured in Lumens (lm).
And in terms of brightness, LEDs offer more lumens than what you’ll get from a CFL – given that the wattage remains constant.
A standard LED fixture can generate between 90 and 120 lumens per watt. On the other hand, CFLs will give you 50 to 70 Lumens per watt.
Looking at those figures, it’s easy to note that LEDs are “almost” two times brighter than CFLs – almost…
For example:
If you take a 20W, 90lm/W LED fixture and turn it on, you’ll get at least 1800 lumens of light (brightness).
However, a 20W, 50lm/W CFL fixture will yield at least 1000 lumens.
Therefore, despite both fixtures having the same wattage, the LED offers you 800 more lumens than what you get from a CFL with the same wattage.
Overall Winner of LED vs CFL Brightness: LED Lights
2. CFL Vs LED Wattage
Brightness aside, you also have to consider power consumption.
A light fixture’s power consumption is measured in Watts. The higher the wattage, the higher the consumption.
From our example above, let’s assume that you have a space that needs at least 4,000 lumens of light to be well lit.
How much power will an LED or CFL light consume to give you that amount of brightness?
Case 1: LEDs
4000 lumens divided by 90lm/w LED efficacy rating will give you ~ 45Watts.
Case 2: CFLs
4000 lumens divided by 50lm/w CFL efficacy rating will give you ~ 80Watts.
An LED fixture uses less power (in our example, 35Watts less) to produce the same amount of light as a CFL bulb.
To better understand this, here’s a simple CFL wattage equivalent chart:
Overall Winner of CFL Vs LED Wattage: LED Lights
3. CFL Vs LED Health
VS
Which of these two lighting technologies offers fewer health problems?
In terms of health, LEDs and CFLs have similarities and differences.
For example:
Both of these light technologies are notorious when it comes to blue light exposure.
Basically, blue light is often responsible for keeping us awake and alert.
However, When you get exposed to too much blue light, several health problems might begin to pop up including:
l Insomnia/Sleeplessness.
l Eye/Visual Fatigue.
l Increased risk of age-related macular degeneration.
l And other health effects caused by sleep deprivation.
Moving on to the differences…
While the only health risks found in LEDs come from blue light exposure, CFLs have other risks you should be worried about.
For instance:
Compact Fluorescent Lamps contain a poisonous heavy metal called Mercurythat’s not only bad for human health but also for the environment.
CFLs can expose you to harmful Ultra-Violet radiation.
They also contain a Phosphor layer that deters blood from clotting, hence, it poses a danger to people who get cut with any phosphor-coated glass pieces from broken CFLs.
Evidently, you’ll have more reasons to worry about your health when using CFLs than when using LEDs.
Overall Winner of CFL Vs LED Health: LED Lights
