All about the Lights

One thing that i'm always struggling is the how to choose my lightings.
Not the design, silly.. but the light bulb. I know i will want LED lights, but the wattage sometimes confuses me, as in how bright does a watt gives me and such.

So i'm compiling the info here for my reference again:

Wattage measures power whereas Lumens measures light output.
A 7W LED will produce more light than a 7W fluorescent light.

As a very rough estimation,
For fluorescent lights (CFLs): multiply watts by 100 to get an LED lumen(lm) value.
For incandescent bulbs: multiply watts by 10

So in the case of LED bulbs, a 6.3w LED bulb will feel like a 40w incandescent bulb with 400 lm:

   
     80-90 lm                    200 lm                       400 lm                      600 lm                      1000 lm
source: Ikea


Here is an estimate for LED wattage selection:

Watts (Power)	Average Lumens (Brightness)	Use this for
3W	200	Candle Bulbs, Lamp shades. Because its not that bright, often use for close lighting.
5W	300	Downlights. Common colour-changing bulbs.
6W	400	Quite common. Bedrooms, corridors.
7W	460	Accent lighting. Bedrooms slightly more bright.
12W	800	Less common. Very high ceiling downlights. Or where a lot of light is required.

source: HomeDesign

How much Lumens do i really need for a room? 
As a general rule of thumb:

Floor: 20 Lumens/Sqft or 215 lm/sqm
Tables and raised surfaces: 30 Lumens/Sqft or 323 lm /sqm
Desk and Task lighting: 50 Lumens/Sqft or 538 lm/sqm

Area	Lumens/Sq M
Kitchen	300-400
Kitchen (Task)	700-800
Living Room	400-500
Hallway	300
Bedroom	300-400
Bedroom (Task)	700-800
Bathroom	500-600
Bathroom (Task)	700-800
Reading Area	400

If possible, get dimmer switches so that if it's too bright, you can still adjust accordingly

    Dimmable       non-dimmable