How Bright Is 1500 Lumens? Your Lumens Brightness Guide

How bright is 1500 lumens? Just what is that level of light good for? We give you real-life applications and comparisons to help you understand what levels of brightness certain quantities of lumens will deliver.

Table of Contents

What Are Lumens?

What Does 1500 Lumens Mean?

How Bright is 1500 Lumens?

Bike Light

Flashlight

Torch

Projector

How Much Light is 1500 Lumens?

How Bright is 1500 Lumens LED?

Is 1500 Lumens Bright Enough to Light a Room?

Is 1500 Lumens Enough for a Bedroom?

How Far Will 1500 Lumens Shine?

1500 Lumens Lighting Products

Headlamp

Camping Lantern

Flood Light

LED Bulb

Smart Bulb

LED Strip Lights

Bike Light

1500 Lumens to Watts

1500 Lumen Conversions

Lux

Foot-candle

Kelvin

Candela

What Are Lumens?

A Lumen is a measure of the total amount of light emitted from a source.

What Does 1500 Lumens Mean?

1500 lumens means the light has an intensity of 1500 lumens of light.

When you are looking for how bright a certain light bulb or lighting product is, the number of lumens is what you need to use as your comparison.

How Bright is 1500 Lumens?

Lumens is the unit measurement of brightness, with 1 lumen equalling the brightness of 1 candle, so 1500 lumens have the brightness of 1500 candles.

1500 Lumens is a very good level of light for LED, CFL or incandescent lighting. It’s suitable for recessed lighting, downlighting, uplighting, and pendants but not table lamps.

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Bike Light

A 1500 lumen bike light can provide a brightness enough to travel approximately 1000 feet to light up a dark road. A very good level of brightness from a focused beam.

Flashlight

The brightness of a flashlight is rated in lumens. A standard flashlight will have around 50 to 100 lumens.

For general use, a torch with 400-600 lumens should be bright enough but if you are looking for a flashlight for tactical use then 1500+ lumens are ideal and still small enough and lightweight to easily carry and store.

Torch

The brightness of a 1500 lumen torch (UK for flashlight) is the power of light of 1500 candles. This level is regarded as a very bright level of torch suitable for most outdoor tasks. The throw of light can be over a 250m distance, beam angle and setting dependant.

Projector

1500 lumens for home theatre projectors is sufficient when the ambient light is minimised and used in a darkened room, otherwise a minimum of 2500 lumens is required.

How Much Light is 1500 Lumens?

To compare how much light you get with different lumens levels, imagine a one-by-one meter room. If the room has an incandescent bulb that emits 1500 lumens then it can illuminate that area to roughly 150 lux (depending on the reflectivity of surfaces in the room).

How Bright is 1500 Lumens LED?

LED light is directional and very efficiently delivers light compared to most other light sources. This amount of light is distributed with minimal wastage and therefore generally creates a brighter intensity on a surface than compared to other technologies.

LED light with a cool white color temperature of 4000K to 6500K will feel brighter when compared to the warmer yellowish tones of warm white, using the same amount of light.

Is 1500 Lumens Bright Enough to Light a Room?

For an average-sized room in your home, a 1500 lumen LED is a good choice to be the main ceiling light but not necessarily bright enough for the whole room as size of the space and type of light source are influencing factors.

It will provide enough brightness for general activities such as reading, working on a computer or watching TV. However, although 1500 lumens may be a lot of light, some output will be lost in the light fixture so you may have to compensate with a higher output or find a fixture with multiple bulbs.

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Is 1500 Lumens Enough for a Bedroom?

1500 lumens are bright for a single source of light but the amount of light you need depends on the size of the bedroom. Generally yes it is.

A general rule of thumb for enough light to see and do basic tasks is 400 lumens for small rooms, 800 lumens for medium-sized rooms, and over 1500 lumens for large rooms. In reality, the total lumens for a room with good lighting design are added to from multiple light sources and are not dependent on a single bright light source.

For example, a 1500lm total would be sufficient for a bedroom with an 800 lumen LED bulb in a ceiling light together with 2 x 400 lumen LED bulbs in table lights on each side of the bed.

We have more on How Much Lighting Do I Need for A Room?

How Far Will 1500 Lumens Shine?

The distance light will travel depends on how the light is being delivered, particularly the beam angle of the light and it’s intensity. The more compactly the lumens are delivered the further the distance will be.

For example, a flashlight with 1500 lumens with a tight beam angle has a peak illumination of 90,000 candela delivering light up to around 600 metres at no less than 0.25 lux. (using throw = SQRT (candela * 4)

1500 Lumens Lighting Products

Headlamp

A 1500 lumen head torch is very bright for outdoor activities such as camping and trekking, with a penetrating throw of light it will suit most applications and be a real asset from a surprisingly small and light weight size.

Camping Lantern

When you look for a camping lantern the brightness of 1500 lumens is effective, achieving the balance of enough light to illuminate your surroundings without too much glare, commonly experienced from the high lumen lanterns, especially when used outdoors in very dark surroundings. A good output for use inside a large tent.

Flood Light

An 1500 lumen security flood light is bright and will easily illuminate the spaces surrounding your property. It’s a good option for lighting up where you need it most, with additional features such as PIR motion sensors available to choose from depending on how much control or automation you require. It is however amongst the lower brightness levels for an LED security floodlight but still with a useful throw of light.

LED Bulb

A 1500 lumen LED bulb is typically 14W and equivalent to over a traditional 100 watt incandescent light bulb.

The brightness of a 1500 lumen LED bulb is very bright and suitable for most home lighting applications. This level is the brightest output you can get from a non-specialist LED light source that still has the aesthetics of a standard bulb.

Comparing soft white vs daylight LED light color, 1500 lumens of daylight will feel brighter than the equivalent in soft white.

Smart Bulb

1500 lumen smart bulbs are available and offer this level of output at their maximum setting.

As well as the brightness, you’ll be able to take advantage of the other features that a smart bulb offers such as remote control, scheduling and color-changing if that’s something that would be useful for you.

LED Strip Lights

An LED strip light with 1500 lumens is around 19W/m 240 LED strip on a 5m reel. This is very bright, and you’ll find that this is one of the highest output levels available and mostly in the cooler whites of 4000K or 6500K.

LED strip lights are a versatile lighting solution which can be used for a variety of purposes such as under cabinet lighting, in coves, to highlight features or simply to add some extra light into a room

Bike Light

A 1500 lm bike light is typically rechargeable by USB with built-in lithium-ion batteries. The level of power required for a reliable long running time, means the battery can also be used as a portable power bank to recharge a mobile phone.

Variable lumen outputs give the user a choice for longer running times.

1500 Lumens to Watts

1500 lumens to watts is a 14W LED light bulb, approximately 100-watt incandescent light bulb or 19 watts per metre for an LED strip.

To convert 1500 lumens to watts you need to consider the type of light source being used as the greater the efficiency the higher the lumen level created per watt of power used.

Although wattages are often used when describing how bright a bulb is, lumens are a better measurement. For example, an incandescent light bulb will emit around 15 lumens per watt while a fluorescent lamp can reach up to 100 lumens per watt.

1500 Lumen Conversions

Useful comparative measurements often asked:

Lux

Lux can only be measured by knowing the distance and the area the lumens have to travel to.

Foot-candle

1500 lumens is 1500 candlepower.

Kelvin

The degree of kelvin is the unit of measurement for color temperature, therefore there is no direct comparison between kelvin to the lumen. However, an impression of brightness will increase with a high degree of kelvin as the light seems colder and brighter to the viewer.

Candela

Lumens and Candela. Lumens is the total amount of light from a fixture. Candela is how much of that light from a fixture shines in one direction. So 1500 lm would be less than 1500 candela with the candela only quantified if the angle of beam width is known.

Andrew Orange, the owner of Orange Lighting qualified and worked as an interior designer in 1993 before specialising in lighting working on high profile projects based in London. Since starting Orange Lighting Ltd in 2003 he has been sharing his knowledge and unique teaching style mostly to his designer clients, offering practical real life advice born from running a busy consultancy and lighting supply business. Launching in 2020, his blog has evolved into Quick & Easy Lighting, curating some 25 years design experience into making the lighting choice and design process achievable and easy to understand for all.