Lumen is not just enough, S/P ratio – for lighting selection.

When selecting lighting for any industrial or commercial application we generally compare lumen and make selection based on lumen requirement. Selecting lighting based on lumen is partially correct but not enough when we are comparing lighting from different source such as LED, High pressure sodium vapour, High pressure mercury vapour, Metal Halide, CFL or any other lighting source.

Higher lumen means higher lighting but it does not mean all lighting produced will take part for visibility of human eyes.

Scotopic vision is used for low light vision, where the eye utilises only the rod receptors for sight, picking out movement but no discernible colors or definition.

Photopic vision is the opposite of Scotopic vision, where well lit conditions encourage the cone receptors, responsible for colour and definition, to be used for sight.

The scotopic/photopic ratio, or S/P ratio, is a multiplier that measures how much emitted light is useful to the human eye. These useful lumens are known as visually effective lumens (VELs).

A lamp with a higher S/P ratio, provides more visually effective lumens for our eyes to process.

When we choose lighting based on only lumens, there may be chance that we may end up with an overpowered luminaire  A lower-wattage LED fixture could have saved you money, operated more efficiently, and provided you all the light you need.

Let us compare LED lighting with mercury Vapor :-

Comparison shows LED at 120W produces lower lumen than mercury Vapor but produces higher visually effective lumen.

S/P ratio of common lighting source:-

Color Temperature

Color temperature in lighting refers to the tone of “white” light that is emitted from a light source.

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