LED Buying Guide – August 2016

With so many different LED options available, it can be tough to pick out the right one for your lighting needs. Each month, our ‘LED Buying Guide’ brings you tips and tricks to help you make a better-educated decision when you go to purchase your next LED bulbs and fixtures. This month, we are exploring The International System of Units (SI), and focusing specifically on ‘Candela’.

The International System of Units (SI) outlines seven units of measure. This includes:

• Meter for length
• Kilogram for mass
• Second for time
• Ampere for electrical current
• Kelvin for temperature
• Mole for amount of substance
• Candela for luminous intensity

In the lighting industry, Candela is a measure of brightness (AKA luminous intensity), or the intensity of the light failing on the target. This is the wave-length-weighted power emitted by a light source per unit solid angle. A light with a narrow-beam has a higher candela because the light hitting the target is more tightly focused; a spotlight, for example.

Candela was previously known as Candlepower – now a mostly obsolete term.

If you have any further questions about buying LEDs, feel free to reach out! We’re here to answer any questions you may have.