Terminology

The term “solid state” lighting can be used to refer to the way LED lighting produces light. The process is fundamentally different than incandescent and florescent lighting. This term applies to the fact that inside LED strip lights, for example, every light emitting diode includes a semiconductor block that does the actual work of producing Learn More

“LED” stands for Light Emitting Diode. LEDs began as exciting but expensive electronic components in the sixties, used in handheld calculators and other similar devices. Through research and development, LED technology advanced, became more efficient and less expensive, until it reached its current form. LEDs can now be used for a number of lighting applications Learn More

A watt is the unit of measurement for the amount of electricity a light fixture uses. When you’re talking about incandescent light bulbs, this term is commonly also used to express brightness, even though watts don’t tell you anything about how bright a light is. “Lumens” is the measure of brightness. With our LED lights, the wattage always means simply how much power is used. A typical 40W light bulb draws 40 watts of power and gives off about 300 lumens of brightness, while an LED bulb of 300 lumens might use about 6 watts.

“Voltage drop” means the gradual diminishing of voltage along the length of the wire as electricity travels away from a power source.  The term applies to what happens when a light or appliance is at a great distance from the power source. Think of a charged electrical wire as a pipe and the electricity as Learn More

“IP” stands for Ingress Protection. All of our products have IP ratings, which always has two numbers: the first stands for the protection against solid objects, the second number for protection against liquid. The highest IP rating is 68, and it tells you that the protection against solid objects is a 6, and the protection against liquid is an 8. Click on the question to see the scale of IP ratings.

“Lumens” is the unit of measurement for the brightness of a light. Don’t confuse this with “wattage”, which is the unit of measurement for the electricity consumed by a light. If you’re used to incandescent bulbs, you probably use “lumens” and “wattage” interchangeably. But an LED fixture with the brightness of a “40 Watt” incandescent light uses much less electricity that 40 Watts. Click on the question to see a PDF that compares the lumens of our LED lights with their wattage.

The color temperature of a light fixture is a measurement of the amount of yellow or blue in the white light that it produces. This measurement is expressed in kelvins; a higher kelvin number means the light is cooler/more blue, and a lower number means that it’s warmer/more yellow. Click on the question to see the kelvin scale.