It is not a clear cut thing to state when determining what cfl or compact fluorescent light bulb to use when replacing your incandescent light bulbs. Yes, the manufacturers put on their packaging that this replaces that but it's a little more of a gray area than that. Why? Because the manufacturers are assuming that you are replacing one of their bulbs and one that they are using for comparison. And it makes a difference whether you are using frosted or clear and which one you are using in comparison.
If this is the case, how do you a non-technical person make the comparison? It's very easy. What you need to do is to compare lumens. Lumens are the brightness that the light bulbs put out and will translate from one type of light bulb to the other. For example, a 20 Watt Philips EL/A PAR38 Reflector Flood Light Bulb has 940 initial lumens. When looking at incandescent, an 85 watt BR40 Reflector Flood Light Bulb has 925 initial lumens. That's pretty darn close and you'll never tell the difference.
This is important for many reasons but the biggest is because you don't want each recessed light bulb in your ceiling to be a different brightness. Needless to say......
Holly Eddins
If this is the case, how do you a non-technical person make the comparison? It's very easy. What you need to do is to compare lumens. Lumens are the brightness that the light bulbs put out and will translate from one type of light bulb to the other. For example, a 20 Watt Philips EL/A PAR38 Reflector Flood Light Bulb has 940 initial lumens. When looking at incandescent, an 85 watt BR40 Reflector Flood Light Bulb has 925 initial lumens. That's pretty darn close and you'll never tell the difference.
This is important for many reasons but the biggest is because you don't want each recessed light bulb in your ceiling to be a different brightness. Needless to say......
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