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When I was a boy (I live in the UK) most light bulbs were incandescents and they were labelled with their wattage. The brightest bulb you could get was an 150 W incandescent light bulb.

Today there are many other light bulb technologies—compact fluorescent (CFL), halogen, LED. Bulbs are labelled with both a brightness in lumens and a power in watts.

How bright in lumens is an 150 W incandescent light bulb? You can't buy them easily any more so I can't check the packaging.

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  • $\begingroup$ The brightness of an incandescent light depends not only on the power dissipated, but also on the filament temperature. Since halogen lamps can get hotter they can emit more visible light for a given power output. $\endgroup$
    – Gabe
    Commented Jan 19, 2015 at 3:49
  • $\begingroup$ Bright enough to reach the ground? $\endgroup$
    – user95006
    Commented Jul 15, 2016 at 17:51

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Here is a comparison chart. The number don't correlate exactly since there are differences in the manufacturing of the bulbs.
enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks. The brightest CFLs sold in shops here are 1400 lumens, so the future really isn't bright. $\endgroup$
    – Colonel Panic
    Commented Jan 18, 2015 at 20:35
  • $\begingroup$ You could always buy a second lamp, that will increase the brightness (if it's not too far away). $\endgroup$
    – LDC3
    Commented Jan 18, 2015 at 20:41
  • $\begingroup$ @ColonelPanic you need to shop around more. Amazon has CFLs in the 2600-2800 lumen range; most of them run ~40W though. The potential gotcha is that they're noticeably larger than a standard incandescent bulb; and may not fit in fixtures that were designed to be barely big enough for a standard size incandescent. I believe the size constraint was why the US ban on incandescent bulbs stopped at the 100W size. $\endgroup$
    – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight
    Commented Jan 18, 2015 at 21:08
  • $\begingroup$ 150W equivalent bulbs on amazon.co.uk. In the US higher wattage CFLs are also generally available in larger home improvement stores. $\endgroup$
    – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight
    Commented Jan 18, 2015 at 21:09
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    $\begingroup$ Why do you assume that he wants an unreliable, mercury-filled, slow-to-illuminate, CFL? I've learned the hard way to incandesce until I can get a replacement LED for the application. $\endgroup$
    – bmargulies
    Commented Jan 19, 2015 at 1:01

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