A short glossary explaining some of the terms that are used in the context of lighting products and lamp hardware. If you can’t find an explanation for something that you are looking for, get in touch and we will explain it for you and add to this section so others may benefit.
Ambient temperature is an important factor to consider when making a lighting instalment. Heat can greatly compromise the well-being of the electronic components [Read more...]
The ampere (amp/A) is the SI base unit for electronic current and is equal to one coulomb per second (C/s). In other words, [Read more...]
Bayonet is the term used to describe a lamp holder or light bulb that uses 2 pins to lock in place. Also known [Read more...]
Bi-colour LED is an LED designed to allow adjustment of the light's colour temperature from one colour to another. They are manufactured with a [Read more...]
The candela; (cd) is the unit of luminous intensity in the International System of Units (SI), that is luminous power per unit solid angle emitted by a point light source [Read more...]
The Colour Rendering Index (CRI) measures how accurately a lamp reproduces the colours of the object it illuminates. The colours picked up by [Read more...]
Colour temperature refers to the warmth or coolness of light. Warmer light appears more yellow and cooler light appears more blue. The warmth [Read more...]
A dichroic reflector is used for display lighting and allows heat to pass through while reflecting the light in a cool beam that [Read more...]
Edison is the term used to describe a lamp holder or light bulb with a screw style fitting (as opposed to one with [Read more...]
FSC stands for The Forest Stewardship Council it is an international non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization established in 1993 that promotes environmentally sound, socially beneficial and [Read more...]
A heat sink is a heat exchanger which passively transfers the heat generated by a device away from itself by using an air or [Read more...]
The IP (Ingress Protection) rating presents the level of protection a light fixture has against dirt and water. Any fixture that is used [Read more...]
The Kelvin (K) is the SI base unit of temperature, named after the Belfast-born engineer and physicist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824–1907). [Read more...]
One Kilowatt hour (kWh) is equal to one thousand Watts sustained for an hour. Its SI base unit symbol is kWh. In terms [Read more...]
Leading and Trailing edge are types of dimmers. Leading edge dimmers were originally used for dimming incandescent and halogen lamps. Because of this, [Read more...]
An LED is a diode which emits visible or infrared light when voltage is applied. These are common in all forms of lighting. [Read more...]
An LED driver is a self contained power supply which regulates the power applied to an LED or set of LEDs. The temperature [Read more...]
The lumen (L) is the the unit for luminous flux, which is a measurement of how much visible light is emitted over time. [Read more...]
The SI base units are the standard units of measurement defined by the International System of Units (SI) for the seven base quantities of what is now known as the International System [Read more...]
The difference between a DP (Double Pole) and SP (Single Pole) switches is that a SP switch breaks the live, and in a [Read more...]
The Volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro [Read more...]
The Watt (W) is a unit of power. It is defined by the internal system of units as a unit derived from 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3 (1 [Read more...]