Here are all the different kinds of lightbulbs that I have in lighting fixtures in my house.
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.
| Reflector type (indoor) | |
|---|---|
| Lounge uplight | R-30 75W flood |
| Lounge down | R-24 75W gro-lt |
| Dining rm eyebll | R-20 50W flood |
| Kitchen | R-40 120 or 150W flood |
| (or R-40 23W CFL; see above) | |
| Family rm track | R-30 75W flood |
| Family rm eyebll | R-20 50W flood |
| Bedroom track | R-25 50W flood |
| 2nd fl bathroom | R-40 75W flood |
| Reflector type (outdoor) | |
| Security lights | R-40 150W flood |
| LED | |
| Kitchen pulldn | 12.5W (see note above) |
| G-type (spherical) | |
| 3rd fl bathroom | G-25 60W white |
| Halogen types | |
| Lounge projector | MR16 50W flood |
| Fam rm halogen track | MR16 50W flood |
| Fam rm reading | T4 50W |
| Dining rm ufo | T4/G2? 50W = G6.35 |
| Mac rm ceiling | T4/G2? 35W |
| Basement torch | 300W 118mm |
| Mac rm torch | 300W 118mm |
| Mac rm desk | G4 20W |
| Bedrm | T4/G2? 50W |
| Guest room | T4/G2? 35W |
| Fluorescent | |
| Basement | 48" 40W warm |
| Laundry | 48" 40W daylight ultra |
| Kitchen long | 48" 40W warm |
| Kitchen short | 18" 15W warm |
| Green study dsk | PL 13W |
| Miscellaneous | |
| 3rd fl landing |
40W small-base chandelier |
| Standard bulbs (A-type) | |
| Laundry sink | 60W soft |
| Tunnel | 40W |
| Basement bthrm | 40W |
| Basement walls | 40 or 60W |
| Powder rm | 40 or 60W |
| Fam rm torch | 2 x 100W |
| Lounge rm torch | 2 x 150W |
| Front hall | 60W soft |
| Front vestibule | 60W soft |
| Lounge std | 60W |
| Lounge table | 40W soft |
| Pantry | 60W |
| 2nd fl hallway | 60W |
| Green study ceil | 60W |
| Bedrm sconces | 60W |
| Box rm ceil | 60 or 100W |
| Linen closet | 60W |
| Guest rm std | 60W |
| Front porch | 60W |