Lumens to Kelvin
 

Is there such a formula to convert Lumens to Kelvin?...I have seen lots of lights and bulbs out there that list Lumens.....Just curious :smile:

I think they are compleatly differnt things, kalvin is the temp of the bulb produces the colour of the light. A lumen is a way of measuring how much light gets to what you want to light. I know a higher kalvin penetrates deeper into the water so maybe there is some realationship but im not sure about conversion.

The short answer to your question is NO. Sean you are partly right, but mostly wrong. :mrgreen:

So, what parts am i wrong on?

a lumen is the amount of light over a given surface area. no relation whats so ever to kelvin which is the color a black body gives off when heated to a specific temperature.

Steve

reply
 

Steve, Can you provide a thread for us to read about this. Apparently I had some misconceptions as well.

If you guys check out some old Aquarium Frontier issues or perhaps,
www.advancedaquarist.com

and look for lighting articles by Craig Bingham, Dana Riddle or Sanjay Joshi. Everything your looking for.

Re: reply
 

I'll see what I can dig up.. shouldn't be to hard to find them out.

OK I screwed Lumen and LUX up again :rolleyes:

a Lux is lumen/meter^2

a lumen is the direct measurement of light power, or
"A unit of light flow or luminous flux. The lumen rating of a lamp is a measure of the total light output of the lamp. The most common measurement of light output"

for further info the Lumen is a rating for for which the standard is light of 555 nm wave length only.

So in simple terms, a lumen is a instantaneous reading of the intensity of light at a 555 nm wave length.

as for Kelvin, it is a direct relationship between the temperature of a black body object (a lot of metals behave like a true black body) and the color it emits due to its temperature. like when you heat up a chunk of metal with a torch, it goes through color changes that correspond with the temperature it is at and the temperature is measured in Kelvin not Celsius or Fahrenheit.

here is a page to play with to see how it works.
http://cat.sckans.edu/physics/black_body.htm

Steve