SPCR

I have a harbor breeze ceiling fan with several incandescent light bulbs in it.

It bugs me that these are the only bulbs in the house I haven't been able to easily replace with something more energy efficient. I'm hoping someone on SPCR can help me find a suitable replacement.

The current bulbs are have a blueish/purple gray glass and are about 2.8 inches from base threads to tip (3.5 inches if you include the base).

http://www.harringtonlights.com/Referen ... _bulbs.htm suggests some methods of measuring the base and after doing so I tend to think this is a E11 base.

If you actually look at their example photo the Purple E26 example matches the glass shape in my hand but the base is silver and small enough that I believe it to be an E11. Imagine taking his E14 example size and changing the glass to the E26 shape and then shrinking it to 80% the size of his E14 example.

Now the lights in this ceiling fan have a slider switch on the wall (no on/off just the slider) so I'm looking for a compact CFL that can be dimmed or a LED that plays nice with dimming and either one has to fit in a E11 base.

Now the space between the socket and the fan blades is at least 6 inches if not more. The socket is hidden by opaque white glass so I don't care about the shape of the bulb. If a floodlight wide angle bulb fits I'll use it, if it is a spot light I'll use it, if my only option is a incandescent bulb I'll be frustrated.

Any lighting experts out there that would be willing to give me a little advice? Something I can buy at a reasonable price other than just replacing the entire ceiling fan to get sockets of a different size would be nice.

For now I'm using the incandescents and they aren't marked so I have no idea if they are 20W, 25W, 40W, 60W?

I'm starting to wonder after looking for E11 aka Mini-candelabra bulbs and seeing how rare they are, maybe these are E12 aka candelabra base instead which are much easier to find and buy.

Either way anyone have experience with dimmable candelabra bulbs?

http://www.energyfederation.org/consume ... _4607_3655

makes the best option look like Philips EnduraLED™ Torpedo at $25 a bulb and 130 Lumens which is expensive and weak (though the 43 lumens per watt is nice the total output is low and the initial cost is high).

They provide this table (not sure how accurate this is)
If that is any indication on how LEDs compete vs incandescents right now I suppose I'll keep incandescent in my dining room ceiling fan.

I just had this LED discussion with a friend. Most of the efficiency is lost in the 115VAC to couple-of-VDC conversion.

Here's what a search popped up based on my area for CFL's.

The problem is if you follow the google search results to the actual product pages you keep seeing

Note: This Bulb is not for use in dimmable applications

Google is not good for searching quickly for something where the key word can be preceded with NOT on some pages and be a positive attribute on others.

If there was a unique code word for dimmable safe use like say "scrunchadiculous" or something more reasonable that would never be used for any NOT safe to dim usage it'd sure be easier to find without spending several days work reading through hundreds of product descriptions.

It'd also be nice to be sure if I need a E11 or E12 bulb but nothing short of buying a bulb and seeing if it fits is going to do that for me I guess. I was hoping someone had a Harbor Breeze ceiling fan and could say from experience that it is or isn't mini-candelabra.

ah.

Lowes' website has a bunch of harbor breeze ceiling fans, and if you find yours, click on "specifications" on the product page and it'll tell you the type of bulb you need.

As for the type of lights, try this : http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/li ... terled.wpd
There is a lot of good info on this site I think.

Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting is one technology that is experiencing breakthroughs and growing fast. It takes many LEDs to equal the light output of a 50-watt bulb, and LEDs are fairly expensive, so LEDs aren’t ready for prime time when it comes to lighting a whole booth.

dhanson865 wrote:It'd also be nice to be sure if I need a E11 or E12 bulb but nothing short of buying a bulb and seeing if it fits is going to do that for me I guess. I was hoping someone had a Harbor Breeze ceiling fan and could say from experience that it is or isn't mini-candelabra.

I have a two Harbor Breeze ceiling fans from Lowes; this model: http://www.lowes.com/pd_36_0__?productId=3284130 which is a 52-in Teolo Brushed Nickel Ceiling Fan with Light Kit
Item #: 72029 | Model #: LP8063LBN . I can confirm that the bulb is a frosted JDE11 120V/100W dimmable Halogen mini-candelabra base bulb. Both bulbs included with the fans are toast after less than a year of extremely light use. I am also looking for replacements with more efficient bulbs, hopefully dimmable LED's with similar specs.

Most people give no thought to their future bills, so instead of buying the light-bulbs that are the cheapest over the longer term (e.g. 1-year), most people simply pay whats the cheapest at the tills and then fork out a small fortune due to their very expensive lighting costs. IMO the best overall value are currently CFL's, as LED lights simply don't put out enough light to compete unless you have a multiple light fitting, and they also tend to put out a blueish light which I don't like.

Saying this, CFL's were pretty rubbish and too expensive for quite a while when they first came out, they are now better in every area including the option to select what colour light the bulb puts out, so LED lighting is the future and CFL lighting is IMO the present.


Andy

The candelabra base is the tough part, and do you really need a 100W equivalent?

The candelabra base is the tough part, and do you really need a 100W equivalent?

No, I'd be fine with a truly dimmable 3w led near 3500K (+- 500K) for $5 a bulb. Wake me when one exists.

I've got standard medium base bulbs near those specs (E26 base 3W 3000K bulb by G7 Power on Amazon for $7), just wish they were a few bucks cheaper per bulb, dimmable, and available in both e26 base (medium) and e12 (candelabra).

I also like the SunSun e26 base 3000K 6.5W at $8 but wish it came in more like 3500K or so, played nice with dimmers*, and of course dropping a few dollars per bulb would be nice.

*I don't need my e26 base bulbs to be truly dimmable, I just need them to shine at or near full brightness without flickering when used in motion activated fixtures that screw in to traditional sockets (they pull some power from the socket to run the motion detector and that apparently causes LED bulbs to flicker).

I took a killawatt meter and measured some bulbs vs their nameplate rating. I saw much lower usage partially because my voltage at the wall was 122V making them more efficient and partly because the granularity on the killwatt meter just isn't accurate enough for single digit wattages.

11W used, 13W CFL 2700K
8W used, 10W CFL 2700K
4W used, 6.5W SunSun LED 3000K
3.5W used, 7W SimpleEnergyWorks LED 4000K
3W used, 6.5W SunSun LED 5000K
1W used, 3W G7 Power LED 3000K

andyb wrote:Most people give no thought to their future bills, so instead of buying the light-bulbs that are the cheapest over the longer term

Very true. People also seem very shortsighted about choosing light fittings which only take obscure candle bulb sizes that are not available in any low energy form.

There does now seem to be movement in this as Ikea are now advertising that they will only sell LED lighting by 2016. Amazingly the same advert is also the only time they've also started saying their name correctly in the English speaking world!

andyb wrote:IMO the best overall value are currently CFL's, as LED lights simply don't put out enough light to compete unless you have a multiple light fitting, and they also tend to put out a blueish light which I don't like.

LED's are now a very good replacement for halogen GU10 and similar spotlights. Halogen spots are terrible both in terms of direct energy efficiency and also indirectly as you can not put insulation over them or else they overheat and burn out early. Early LEDs were quite blue but nowadays come in more natural colours. I find them ideal in kitchens and bathrooms.

I want to buy a ceiling fan that is ideal for rooms of up to 360 square feet or more than this having lifetime warranty . I am not
having any budget issue