Watts no longer tell you how bright a light is. This chart converts the lumen packages buyers actually order into the wattage they should expect at honest LED efficiencies.
2026-09-10 · 6 min read · Reference guide
Use this chart when a specification says "replace the 250W metal halide" or "I need the 100-watt equivalent" and you need to translate it into an LED wattage you can quote. The rule is simple: lumens measure light, watts measure electricity, and the link between them is efficacy (lm/W). Because LED products range from 70 to 180 lm/W, the same brightness can carry wildly different wattage claims — which is exactly why wattage-only quotations from suppliers deserve suspicion. The table below converts the most common lumen packages at three benchmark efficiencies: 100 lm/W (ordinary budget LED), 130 lm/W (mainstream commercial, the most common real-world figure) and 150 lm/W (premium commercial and industrial class).
| Lumen package | Incandescent equiv. | W at 100 lm/W | W at 130 lm/W | W at 150 lm/W | Typical fixture |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 450 lm | 40W bulb | 4.5 W | 3.5 W | 3 W | A60 lamp, mini pendant |
| 800 lm | 60W bulb | 8 W | 6 W | 5.3 W | A60 lamp, 4" downlight |
| 1,100 lm | 75W bulb | 11 W | 8.5 W | 7.3 W | 4" downlight, spot lamp |
| 1,600 lm | 100W bulb | 16 W | 12 W | 10.7 W | 6" downlight, PAR38 |
| 2,500 lm | 150W bulb | 25 W | 19 W | 16.7 W | Ceiling light, wall pack |
| 4,000 lm | 4 x 60W bulbs | 40 W | 31 W | 26.7 W | 600x600 panel, troffer |
| 6,000 lm | 250W halogen | 60 W | 46 W | 40 W | Linear batten, small flood |
| 10,000 lm | 400W metal halide | 100 W | 77 W | 67 W | 100W-class UFO high bay |
| 16,000 lm | 700W metal halide | 160 W | 123 W | 107 W | 150W high bay, street light |
| 25,000 lm | 1,000W metal halide | 250 W | 192 W | 167 W | 200W flood, major road lantern |
| 40,000 lm | 2 x 1,000W MH | 400 W | 308 W | 267 W | 300W-class area flood |
Illustrative planning values. Fixture-level efficacy is always lower than bare-chip efficacy because of driver losses, optics and thermal derating — that is why the system figures above stop at 150 lm/W.
| Fixture class | Typical system efficacy | What moves the number |
|---|---|---|
| Decorative lamps and pendants | 70-90 lm/W | Diffusers, shade losses and dimming electronics |
| Residential downlights | 80-100 lm/W | Recess depth, reflector efficiency, driver grade |
| Office panels and troffers | 100-130 lm/W | Diffuser transmission, UGR optics, controls standby |
| UFO and linear high bays | 130-160 lm/W | Heatsink sizing, driver brand, SDCM binning |
| Street and area lights | 140-170 lm/W | Beam optics, thermal design, surge protection overhead |
| Solar street lights | 160-200 lm/W effective | Aggressive dimming schedules inflate the effective figure |
Retrofit economics live or die on this conversion. A warehouse swapping 400W metal halide high bays for 150W LED units (roughly 20,000 lm at 135 lm/W) cuts lighting load by more than 60% — the arithmetic we walk through in the factory retrofit payback guide. Panels, battens and downlights across the commercial lighting range sit in the 100-130 lm/W band, while the high bay and flood families under industrial lighting and outdoor and solar lighting push 140 lm/W and above. Quote lumen packages, not wattages, and the comparison across suppliers becomes honest.
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CE, UKCA, SAA and SASO: which marks your market needs and how to verify them.
Tell us what you replace and the target lux — we return the lumen package, fixture schedule and FOB pricing within 24 hours.