What is the difference between lumens and watts?

In the past years people had to look at the power usage on the bulbs to measure the brightness of the lights, but this is changing with the new technologies like LED lights.

Looking at the power usage is over, now instead of the bulbs based on watts, you can buy lights measured in lumens.

In the incandescent lights, higher wattage means to have better brightness, but with LEDs it is different because it is not a rule to compare the wattage with the bright output. But with lumens, you can measure the light output. The higher the number of lumens, the light will be brighter.

All light bulb manufacturers are required to list the number of lumens, the life expectancy and the estimated energy cost per year by the FTC. As more LEDs bulbs enter the market, we have less watt and more lumen measuring on the specifications. But for people who want to change some bulbs to energy efficient, we have a comparative between watt energy and lumens.

Another important change that new LED bulbs bring with them is that they heat a lot less than the old bulbs, so many fixtures were designed for a maximum watt bulb because of the heating, with the LED bulbs this problem has no sense because they produce a very low heating.