Lightbulbs at my house

Lightbulb blog

See the table below for a complete list of lightbulbs.

24 April 2023: THe Noma LED wrap light in the basement (see 15 October 2017) has failed, turning into a strobe light, after less than 6 years. A replacement fixture (Commercial Electric brand — no more Noma!) and its installation cost $275 in total. This idea of built-in LEDs with a supposedly generation-long lifespan seems to be an expensive failure. What future for the new built-in LEDs in the bathroom and kitchen (see November 2021)?

November 2021: Finally, decent LED bulbs are available to replace the R-40 incandescent flood lights in the bathroom and kitchen down lights, which have been limping along on old incandescents and over-focused LEDs with horrible bright spots. For $40 each, I bought Halo 5"/6" baffle downlight bulb and trim replacements — the 693 lumen model for the bathroom (three fixtures) and the 1221 lumen model for the kitchen (four fixtures), and set the colour temperature to 3000K (it can be varied from 2700 to 5000). Installation was not quite as easy as the advertisements make it seem, but all are now in place and are a vast improvement on the previous bulbs.

In the bathroom, since the old conventional dimmer, which was never very good, doesn't work with LEDs (or vice versa), I also replaced the dimmer with a programmable Lutron Sunnata that works very nicely. A new Philips dimmable LED bulb over the shower completes the work. The umdimmable 2700K bulb that had been over the shower moves to the pantry to replace the horrible 5000K bulb.

October 2021: The Feit 'intelligent' dusk-to-dawn bulb in the porch light fixture has suddenly turned into a strobe light! Just in time for Halloween. Clearly a circuit failure, and after only four years. I bought a replacement (this one was 2700K, preferable to the failed 5000K), but it was defective right from the start. Randomly, every 15 to 45 seconds or so, it would flash off for perhaps half a second. I made a claim to Feit under warranty; they said they would send me a replacement (which is yet to arrive). I hope that it works better than the previous ones — Feit seems to have some quality control issues.

11 October 2020: I took inventory of current bulbs and any opportunities to replace existing bulbs with more energy-saving bulbs. All I found was two incandescents that could usefully be replaced with LED bulbs. In all other cases, either there is no energy-saving equivalent available (except with replacing the lamp or fixture), or the fixture is used so little that the potential energy saving is less than the cost of a replacement bulb.

9 July 2019: One of the old incandescent 75W R-40's in the main bathroom has come to the end of its life. I've replaced it with a Philips 9W indoor R-30 LED soft white floodlight, which is dimmable and which has the same form factor (except for size, which doesn't matter here) as the incandescent that it replaces. At 650 lumens and good diffusion, it fits in perfectly, unlike certain other overly bright stark white shadow-inducing R-40 LED floodlights that I could name. If I still like it a week from now, I'll get a couple more to replace the remaining incandescents, which must be nearly at the end of their lives too.

1 May 2019: I've replaced the temporary CFL with a new $7 Philips dimmable soft white 9.5W ("60W replacement", 800 lumens, about 2200K). The light is indistinguishable from that of the $30 12.5W bulb it replaces; it uses only 75% of the power; and it looks pretty much like a regular Edison bulb, unlike the old "space alien" form-factor (which had its own special charm). LED bulbs have come a long way in 7½ years.

30 April 2019: Our first LED bulb, the Philips "AmbientLED™", which was touted as having a lifespan of 15 years (see entry for 9 October 2011), has died at the age of 7½. I have no suitable replacement for it right now, so a horrible 13W stark-white CFL will have to do for the moment.

15 October 2017: I have replaced one of the basement fluorescent fixtures, which wasn't working well, with a Noma LED "wrap light", which is much brighter and in all ways better than the fluorescent it replaces. The short under-cabinet fluorescent in the kitchen, which was flaky, was also replaced by a similar LED sealed fixtures. And the motion detector that controls the front porch light, which was broken, has been removed and its function replaced by an 'intelligent' LED bulb in the porch light itself.

21 February 2015: The incandescent light bulb in the green study died, so I replaced it with one of the flat round LED bulbs that my student Arturo gave me a while ago (see previous entry). Although this 10.5W bulb is billed as a 60W replacement, it's as bright as the old 100W incandescent was.

6 April 2014: Arturo Martínez Peguero thoughtfully gave me some of the new Philips flat LED type-A bulbs. I've very successfully replaced the last remaining CFL in the second-floor hallway with one of them (10.5W = 60W replacement). The second-floor hallway is now lit by three generations of Philips LED bulbs. Unfortunately, however, the flat bulb, like the earlier Philips type-A round LED (see previous entry), won't work in the heritage fixture in the front hall; the bulb has a slight flange that prevents it fitting.

30 December 2012: The start-up time for the R-40 CFL in the kitchen has been getting longer and longer. I have replaced it with a new Philips 19.5W LED floodlight marketed as a 120W replacement (1200 lumens -- same as the CFL) for $55!. It is starkly white, and although called a floodlight, it is not as diffuse, making a large bright white patch on the kitchen bench. Will this be usable?

I also bought a pair of 10.5W Philips 60W-replacement LED bulbs ($15) that, unlike the more-expensive 12.5W Philips "AmbientLED" 60W-replacement (see prior entry), are not dimmable and are the size and shape of a standard type-A bulb. They are more starkly white and less diffuse than the "AmbientLED", and are dark in the bottom part, making them unsuitable for use in the frosted glass fixture in the front hall. Also, they flicker when on a circuit with a dimmer, even if the dimmer isn't used. So they will replace two nasty CFLs in the bedroom and second-floor hallway, rather than the front hall where the energy saving would have been greater.

9 October 2011: Our first $30 light bulb -- a Philips "AmbientLED™", 12.5W marketed as a 60W replacement, 800 lumens, dimmable, and a life-expectancy of 15 years. (If it fails after just 14 years, Philips will replace it free of charge if I have the cash-register receipt and the barcode from the package.) It's installed in the pulldown fixture over the kitchen table. The light is indistinguishable from the 60W Soft White that it replaced.

October 2010: It seems that R-40 120W incandescent floods are no longer made, which is a problem for lighting in the kitchen. The 60W incandescent R-40 floods that are on sale are only about 900 lumens, compared to 1500 lumens for the present bulbs, and they just aren't bright enough. So I replaced a dead bulb with a Sylvania 23W CFL at 1200 lumens (marketed as a replacement for 75W incandescents) in the downlight fixture. But there are two problems with this kind of bulb:

(1) Such a bulb cannot go in any of the other fixtures in the kitchen, as (unlike the downlight fixture) they do not shade the edge of the bulb. But the bulb itself is clear on the side (unlike the incandescents) and so the tiny bright point of the twisty tube inside is visible. It shines in your eyes, and it's horrible.

(2) Startup time for this bulb is just incredibly long -- two minutes or more, far more than ordinary CFLs. That's barely okay even when it's just one CFL in the room and everything else is incadescent. There's no way this could work if every bulb in the room were like this. You'd have to just keep the lights on permanently. So much for saving energy with CFLs!

22 March 2007: Experiment: Replace one 40W fluorescent in basement with 32W.

10 March 2007: Experiment: In the second floor hallway, replace two of the incandescent 60W bulbs with compact fluorescents -- one regular, one "daylight". Leave one incandescent for comparison.

9 June 2005: New halogen track lights in family room (MR16 floodlight type, 12V 50W); new wall sconce in front vestibule (60W type A); new fixture replaces bare bulb in box room (soon to be office) (100W type A).

15 May 2005: Halogen torchiere in loungeroom replaced with new (safer) incandescent. Takes two 150W A-type bulbs, but right now has 100Ws instead.

15 September 2002: Fluorescent tube over washing machine changed from "warm" to "daylight ultra". The whole room looks different!

19 December 2001. New combination torchiere and reading light for family room has incandescent type-A bulbs in the top part (150W permitted but try 100W for now) and halogen type T-4 in the reading-light part.

24 October 2001. Effective immediately, the bulb in the kitchen pull-down light will be a 60W soft white (A-type) instead of a 60W G-type.

11 September 2000. Effective immediately, the bulbs in the guest bathroom will be 60W instead of 25W.

Lightbulbs at my house

Reflector type (indoor, incandescent)
Lounge downR-24 75W gro-lt
Dining rm eyeballR-20 50W flood
Family rm trackR-30 75W flood
Bedroom trackR-25 50W flood
Reflector type (outdoor)
Security lightsR-40 150W flood
LED
Kitchen pulldown9.5W dimmable
Kitchen canister 19.5W flood
Kitchen, othersHalo bulb and trim replacement
(1221 lumens)
2nd fl hallway12.5W and/or 10.5W
Porch"Dawn to dusk" 5W
Bathroom mainHalo bulb and trim replacement
(693 lumens)
Bathroom showerDimmable 8W
G-type (spherical)
Bedroom uplightG-25 25W white
3rd fl bathroomG-25 60W white
Powder rmG-25 40W clear
Halogen types
Top of basement stepsG9 35W max
Lounge projectorMR16 50W flood
Lounge readingT4 50W
Fam rm halogen trackMR16 50W flood
Fam rm readingT4 50W
Dining rm ufoT4/G2? 50W = G6.35
Mac rm ceilingT4/G2? 35W
Basement torch300W 118mm
Office torch300W 118mm
Guest rm deskG4 20W
BedrmT4/G2? 50W
Guest roomT4/G2? 35W
3rd fl landing
28W halogen small-base
chandelier
Fluorescent tubes
Basement48" 40W warm
Laundry48" 40W daylight ultra
Kitchen long48" 40W warm
Office desklampsPL 13W
Standard bulbs (A-type)
(Incandescent, LED, or CFL)
Laundry sink60W soft
Tunnel40W
Basement bthrm40W
Basement walls40 or 60W
Fam rm torch2 x 100W
Lounge rm torch #12 x 150W
Lounge rm torch #22 x 40W LED
Front hall60W soft
Front vestibule60W soft
Pantry8W LED
2nd fl hallwayVarious 10.5W and 12.5W LEDs
Green study ceil10.5W flat LED
Bedrm sconces8.5W and 10.5W LED
Playroom ceiling100W
Linen closet60W
Guest rm std60W


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Last modified, 21 November 2021.
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