Enter your bulb's wattage and see the lumens output instantly, plus what LED replaces it and your annual cost savings. Or flip to Lumens to Watts mode if you already know your brightness target.
Last reviewed May 2026
When you buy a light bulb today, ignore the watts. Lumens is the number that tells you how bright the bulb will be.
Watts measure power consumption, not brightness. A 60-watt incandescent and a 10-watt LED can produce exactly the same amount of light. The difference is that the LED produces that light using one-sixth the electricity. If you have been choosing bulbs by wattage for decades, you were actually comparing energy use, not brightness output.
Wattage is a measure of power: how many joules of electrical energy the bulb consumes per second. A 60-watt bulb draws 60 joules per second from your electrical panel. An incandescent bulb converts about 5 percent of that energy into visible light and wastes the remaining 95 percent as heat. That is why incandescent bulbs are warm to the touch and why they were such an easy target for efficiency standards.
Lumens measure light output: the total amount of visible light a bulb produces. A standard 60-watt incandescent produces approximately 800 lumens. That same 800 lumens from a modern LED requires only 9 to 11 watts, because LED technology converts electrical energy into light far more efficiently, at around 80 to 100 lumens per watt versus 15 lumens per watt for an incandescent.
The technical term for this ratio is luminous efficacy, expressed in lumens per watt (lm/W). Higher efficacy means more light per watt of electricity consumed.
The US Department of Energy updated efficiency standards for general service lamps, effective 2023, that effectively ended the retail sale of standard incandescent bulbs. The new standards require a minimum efficacy of 45 lumens per watt. Incandescents average around 15 lm/W and cannot meet this threshold. LEDs, which average 80 to 100 lm/W, comfortably exceed it. Most halogens are also expected to phase out under a forthcoming 2028 standard that raises the bar further.
If you still have incandescent bulbs at home, they work fine until they burn out. You simply cannot buy replacements at most retailers any longer.
This table shows the standard equivalences confirmed by DOE-funded sources and VOLT Lighting. When you see an 800-lumen LED at the hardware store, that is the 60-watt equivalent you are looking for.
| Brightness (lumens) | Incandescent (W) | Halogen (W) | CFL (W) | LED (W) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 lm | 7W | 6W | ~2W | 1–2W |
| 375 lm | 25W | 20W | ~7W | ~4W |
| 450 lm | 30W | 25W | 9–13W | 6–8W |
| 800 lm | 60W | 45W | 13–15W | 9–11W |
| 1,100 lm | 75W | 53W | 18–25W | 13–15W |
| 1,600 lm | 100W | 72W | 23–30W | 18–20W |
| 2,600 lm | 150W | 145W | 30–52W | ~27W |
| 3,000 lm | 200W | 175W | — | ~32W |
| Sources: SmarterHouse.org (DOE-funded); VOLT Lighting. The 800 lm / 60W equivalence is the FTC Lighting Facts standard reference. | ||||
A 60-watt incandescent running 1,000 hours per year (roughly 3 hours per day) costs about $9.60 annually at the US average electricity rate of $0.16 per kilowatt-hour. A 10-watt LED producing the same 800 lumens costs about $1.60 per year. That is $8.00 saved per bulb per year.
A household with 20 light sockets, switching all of them to LED, saves roughly $160 per year on electricity. LED bulbs also last 15,000 to 25,000 hours versus 1,000 hours for incandescents, so you replace them far less often.
LED bulbs that match the standard equivalences in the table above are widely available. A19 base (the standard household shape) is the most common. Look for the lumens value on the Lighting Facts label, not the wattage.
This calculator is designed to help estimate light output (lumens) from wattage, or the wattage needed to achieve a target light output, using published industry efficacy ranges. Actual lumens output varies by specific bulb model, manufacturer, and age of bulb. For accurate lumens, check the Lighting Facts label on the bulb package. Cost estimates use US average electricity rates and may not reflect your local utility rate. Efficacy ranges are based on US Department of Energy and ENERGY STAR published guidance as of May 2026. Regulatory dates (2023 incandescent phase-out, forthcoming 2028 CFL/halogen standard) reflect publicly reported DOE policy; verify current status at energy.gov.