Many people face the coming fall and winter with concern. Will energy supplies last? In order to take precautions, some are already taking steps to reduce consumption in their own home – for example, by switching to energy-efficient LEDs where conventional lamps have so far been doing their job. The industry initiative licht.de explains what is important when buying light sources. A view of the packing data is also recommended.

Lumen and CO.
Today, watts are no longer the relevant unit, but Lumen (lm). This figure indicates the brightness of a lamp. By way of comparison, an LED with 700 lm provides as much light output as a traditional 60-watt light bulb.

Light colour is also important: It is expressed as colour temperature in Kelvin (K). Warm white, cosy light for the living area is produced by light sources with 2,700 K. Good working light is provided by daylight white lamps with more than 5,300 K.

Buyers should also pay attention to colour rendering (R_a). This value indicates how naturally a light source reproduces colours: For living rooms, at least R_a 80 is correct.

Energy label & dimmability
The energy label on the packaging provides information about the efficiency: good energy efficiency classes are already D to F with the new label, which correspond to the old class A++. A QR code leads to more product data in the European database EPREL. Further information, such as dimmability, can also be found on the packaging. The manufacturers´ websites also provide information on which light source is compatible with which dimmer.