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.