Increase light in bedroom

Nicknamed

Hi.
The light in our bedroom is very dim as yellow.
Please see photo attached.
I went to woodies and they said changing bulb wouldn’t help much.
How can I increase the brightness and perhaps whiter light?
Thank you for any help.

Nicknamed

Nicknamed wrote: »

Hi.
The light in our bedroom is very dim as yellow.
Please see photo attached.
I went to woodies and they said changing bulb wouldn’t help much.
How can I increase the brightness and perhaps whiter light?
Thank you for any help.

Sorry attached photos now

Padre_Pio

You can get bulbs in whatever colour you want.

2011

Nicknamed wrote: »

Hi.
The light in our bedroom is very dim as yellow.
Please see photo attached.

That is a CFL, the output from these is generally poor.

I would suggest that you go for a Philips B22 warm white LED lamp like this.

I went to woodies and they said changing bulb wouldn’t help much.

Not a good place to go for advice in my opinion. For electrical advice I would suggest an electrical wholesaler or an electrician.

Mellor

Nicknamed wrote: »

I went to woodies and they said changing bulb wouldn’t help much.

Well that's just flat out incorrect. Terrible advice from them. Changing a low output bulb for an higher output will, obviously, increase the output.

The type you have is quite old, which were more very warm light, especially as they age. But that's the benefit, they last a long time.
Change to a modern LED. 100-120w equivalent (1600 lumens).

The blub above is fine. But it's also a warm light. Personally I'd go with a 3000-3500k temperature, Bright white, for ceiling fittings. With warmer bulbs in bedside fittings.

whizbang

+1

I just changed a 22w Cfl similar to yours, about 4 years old, to a 11W Phillips Led. Vast difference; even the neighbours can see it outside.

Nicknamed

Thank you.
So I wouldn’t need to change the fitting and just the bulb change would do ?
Can someone post me a link for the bulb that would do the trick and I will try to find.
The fitting also has a sticker of the specifications I am worried if I change to higher output can it cause problem for the fitting or e.g. if the wire will break by heating up ?
I have reattached photo of the sticker which is on the fancy covering surrounding the bulb. Thanks a lot for all your insights.

kirving

Old incandescent bulbs were very inefficient, with most of the energy they used generating heat instead of light. But, they became a benchmark of how to rate how bright a bulb would be.

So despite CFL bulbs using far less energy, they would still be marketed as "75W Equivalent (18W)" or similar.

Over the past few years as LED's have become more common, they're now being marketed as say "1100 Lumen (75W Equivalent)". This probably confused the Woodies person - they should know better but I see how it can be confusing.

You can safely use a much brighter LED in that 11W fixture. The likelihood is that the manufacturer either used cheap parts, or didn't bother rating they design to anything more powerful, since the majority of new bulbs consume less power.

Padre_Pio

Any LED bayonet bulb should do the trick.

Of you want to get fancy you could buy the colour change bulbs like the Philips Hue.
Then you can set the brightness and colour with an app.

Nice and bright in the morning, then dim in the evening .

jumbone

You have an 15W CFL bulb which is equivalent to an old style 75W incandescent

1. Typically you would have put 60W/40W bulbs in lamps and 100W in a ceiling pendant so you are a bit lower than the norm

2. CFL bulbs take a while to 'warm up' to full brightness and given that this is a bedroom the light not ever be on long enough

3. CFL bulbs can degrade as they get older and given that LED has been the standard for a while, i'd guess this bulb is a few years old

You also mentioned that your light is quite yellow but your bulb does not say what colour it is on it. The colour temp of a bulb is measured in Kelvin units with lower kelvin being warm yellow light and higher getting bluer giving you cool daylight white or a slight blue tinge. This image shows quite well what each option looks like




The general consensus is warm for living spaces (living room, bedroom) and cool daylight for work spaces (kitchens, office, art studio) but I tend to buck that slightly and go with bright, cool bulbs in ceiling fixtures and warm bulbs in lamps to give me options. Cool lights in bedrooms do have uses e.g. far better for applying makeup in near daylight that in a yellowy light that affects perception of colour and are fantastic for when you are cleaning.

I would therefore recommend these bulbs:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B085TBB2SF/

- They are 20W energy consumption which is slightly higher than your old bulb but equivalent to 150W in an old style bulb so so twice the light for a third more energy

- 6000k is a daylight colour but without looking blue (see above chart)
2011 and Mellor did recommend warmer bulbs than this but given you complained of yellowness I'm gambling that you're like me and prefer cooler light!
If I am wrong, the bulbs I recommend do come in other colour temps so use the chart to make your own call there!

- B22 or BC just means bayonet cap fitting (as opposed to an edison screw type) which matches your fitting

- 2000Lm or 2000 lumen is a more modern way of measuring light output than watts.

Watts are actually measuring the amount of electricity a bulb uses and back when there was only one bulb technology (incandescent) seeing as increasing energy use resulted in increased light, people took wattage as a measurement of light output. This didn't really account for the fact that a whole load of the energy used by a bulb was being wasted by creating heat rather than light (incandescent literally means emitting light as a result of being heated).

As lumens actually measure light output, they are suitable for comparing brightness across different bulb types

Final thing I will point out is that your lampshade looks quite opaque - i.e. it actually blocks light except for out the top and bottom and the cut-outs.
Switching to a more translucent one will allow light to better spread around the room and eliminate dark corner. Most basic option would be the slightly naff paper globe:

but there are more stylish ones available


Even though I recommend changing the shade anyways, the bulb I recommend would be dead on for the one you have due to less heat output than the CFL or incandescent

Nicknamed

Hi.
I think we want the brighter light as you are gambling !
Can we put the 10000 K colour ? What would be the downside of putting that in if that is available ?
Many thanks.

jumbone wrote: »

You have an 15W CFL bulb which is equivalent to an old style 75W incandescent

1. Typically you would have put 60W/40W bulbs in lamps and 100W in a ceiling pendant so you are a bit lower than the norm

2. CFL bulbs take a while to 'warm up' to full brightness and given that this is a bedroom the light not ever be on long enough

3. CFL bulbs can degrade as they get older and given that LED has been the standard for a while, i'd guess this bulb is a few years old

You also mentioned that your light is quite yellow but your bulb does not say what colour it is on it. The colour temp of a bulb is measured in Kelvin units with lower kelvin being warm yellow light and higher getting bluer giving you cool daylight white or a slight blue tinge. This image shows quite well what each option looks like




The general consensus is warm for living spaces (living room, bedroom) and cool daylight for work spaces (kitchens, office, art studio) but I tend to buck that slightly and go with bright, cool bulbs in ceiling fixtures and warm bulbs in lamps to give me options. Cool lights in bedrooms do have uses e.g. far better for applying makeup in near daylight that in a yellowy light that affects perception of colour and are fantastic for when you are cleaning.

I would therefore recommend these bulbs:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B085TBB2SF/

- They are 20W energy consumption which is slightly higher than your old bulb but equivalent to 150W in an old style bulb so so twice the light for a third more energy

- 6000k is a daylight colour but without looking blue (see above chart)
2011 and Mellor did recommend warmer bulbs than this but given you complained of yellowness I'm gambling that you're like me and prefer cooler light!
If I am wrong, the bulbs I recommend do come in other colour temps so use the chart to make your own call there!

- B22 or BC just means bayonet cap fitting (as opposed to an edison screw type) which matches your fitting

- 2000Lm or 2000 lumen is a more modern way of measuring light output than watts.

Watts are actually measuring the amount of electricity a bulb uses and back when there was only one bulb technology (incandescent) seeing as increasing energy use resulted in increased light, people took wattage as a measurement of light output. This didn't really account for the fact that a whole load of the energy used by a bulb was being wasted by creating heat rather than light (incandescent literally means emitting light as a result of being heated).

As lumens actually measure light output, they are suitable for comparing brightness across different bulb types

Final thing I will point out is that your lampshade looks quite opaque - i.e. it actually blocks light except for out the top and bottom and the cut-outs.
Switching to a more translucent one will allow light to better spread around the room and eliminate dark corner. Most basic option would be the slightly naff paper globe:

but there are more stylish ones available


Even though I recommend changing the shade anyways, the bulb I recommend would be dead on for the one you have due to less heat output than the CFL or incandescent

Mellor

Nicknamed wrote: »

Hi.
I think we want the brighter light as you are gambling !
Can we put the 10000 K colour ? What would be the downside of putting that in if that is available ?
Many thanks.

10,000K has nothing to do with brightness in itself. But per watt 10,000K is much less bright that 4000K.

It’s very rare to use a colour at that end of the spectrum. It would feel very cold and dim. Plus it W probably would be commercially available. Not really a use for it in domestic, workspace, retail.
Even LED bulbs that are adjustable temperature are usually a 2000-6000 range.

Nicknamed

can anyone help with this ?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058214071/changing-bulb-roof-light