What does 'watt' stand for and why is it of value in work lights?

Watt, Voltage and Ampere. Different terms that are relevant when it comes to light and energy. Since wattage is talked about a lot within lighting, we like to explain briefly what it stands for. We also look at whether wattage or voltage really says anything about the intensity or power of an LED work light.

Wattage, Ampere and voltage, what are the differences and what do these terms mean?

With work lights, there are a few things that you might especially notice. Often the title says how many volts a light can use and how much power it has, which is expressed in 'wattage'. Therefore, we explain these terms in short.

Watt (W)

As in many cases, wattage is also named after a person. This person is the Scottish engineer James Watt. 'Watt' or 'Wattage' is the unit of measurement to measure the electrical power of, in your case, the work light. This is different from, say, horsepower, which is also a unit of power. Horsepower is a rather old way of measuring power. Also, horsepower is not tailored to electronic devices. Wattage (W) thus refers to the power ofthe LED work light. However, this does not necessarily mean that the work light enjoys a higher light output. Things like: reflector technology and lens use also play a major role.

Examples where wattage comes up:

• An LED work light has a wattage of 48W. This is the power of all LEDs combined.
• Your combi microwave oven has an output cap of 900W, making it capable of heating your food at 900W.

As a rule, you can use the following formula to express one watt; 1W = 1V * 1A | 1v= 1 Volt, 1A = 1 Ampere. Now of course, as with centimetres, there are larger and smaller units. You will find an overview in the table below. However, this applies to lighting to a lesser extent.

Ampere (A)

Like wattage, Ampere is also named after a scholar. As you can probably guess, the creator of the unit of measurement Ampère is none other than French gentleman André-Marie Ampère. André was one of the most important researchers in the field of electromagnetism and Ampère still has an important meaning today. A definition of this unit of measurement is as follows:

The ampere is the unit of current, just as the meter is the unit of length. The ampere is defined based on an interesting physical phenomenon: a magnetic field is created around a live wire. The more powerful the current, the stronger the magnetic field. This leads to a magnetic attraction between two parallel live wires. When two cables of the same kind are connected to the same power source and they attract each other with the right force, one ampere flows through each cable.

Voltage (V)

In short, voltage is the voltage running through the vehicle. Within vehicles, this is mainly a 12 volt voltage or a 24 volt voltage. Volt is defined as the potential difference across a conductor when a current of 1 ampere converts a power of 1 watt into heat in it. The unit is also equal to 1 joule per coulomb. With TRALERT®, you don't have to worry about voltage within your vehicle. Our lighting is mainly multi-voltage equipped, which makes it support both 12V and 24V without light loss.

Does the stated wattage then directly equate to the power of the work light?

No, not directly. It is of course true that the more watts, the more power the light contains. However, as mentioned earlier, there are more factors that affect light intensity and light range. For example, a work light may contain an average lower Watt per LED, but feature a powerful reflector lens. An example of this is the TRSW12275FB within our range. This light has a low wattage value and an average number of lumen. However, by means of an RFT lens, this work light offers a more powerful, better-distributed beam than other models equipped with more Watts. As a piece of advice, we would like to give you the advice not to focus on Watts or Lumens. Lamps and light are meant to be compared, and the best way to do that is by visiting our showroom. In fact, this space is specially designed to showcase these differences.