| Luna Street has taken the time to provide you with some definitions and explanations of some basic lighting vocabulary used in the day to day lighting world. We hope the information helps…..Here we go! |
Watt :
(• noun)
the unit of power in the SI system, equivalent to one joule per second and corresponding to the rate of energy in an electric circuit where the potential difference is one volt and the current one ampere.
— ORIGIN named after the Scottish engineer James Watt (1736-1819). |
|
Watt-hour:
(• noun)
a measure of electrical energy equivalent to a power consumption of one watt for one hour. |
|
Lumen: /loomen/
(• noun) the SI unit of luminous flux, equal to the amount of light emitted per second in a unit solid angle of one steradian from a uniform source of one candela.
— ORIGIN Latin, ‘light’.
(A lumen can be understood as a value of total power of light emitted) |
|
Lux: /luks/
(
• noun )the SI unit of illuminance, equal to one lumen per square metre.
— ORIGIN Latin, ‘light’. |
|
Candela:
(
• noun) Physics the SI unit of luminous intensity.
— ORIGIN Latin, ‘candle’. |
|
SI:
• abbreviation 1
Système International, the international system of units of measurement based on the metre, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, candela, and mole. |
|
Kelvin Kº :
Degree measurements which helps to determine the color temperature of light |
|
Photometric Data :
Technical data providing the calculations and measurements of the intensity of light. |
|
IES File Format :
The correct data file format (.IES) set forth by the Illuminating Engineering Society (the standard file format for electronic transfer of photometric data) |
|
Color Rendition Index :
A procedure used to determine the effect of light sources on the appearance of objects. A CRI higher than 80 generally contains good enough properties. |
|
Min / Max Levels :
The minimum and maximum measurement amounts of light. |
|
Average rated life :
This pertains to the estimated lamp life (median value). |
|
Uniform :
A situation where lighting has an equal illumination spanning across an area with a rather lower min to max lighting ratio. |
|
Mounting height :
Refers to the distance calculation from the ground to the light source |
|
Spacing :
Refers to the distance (usually in feet) from one street light pole to the other |
|
| (Source: some of the definitions above were obtained from the Oxford Dictionary Website at http://www.askoxford.com ) |
