“When I was very small the electricity was turned off because we didn’t pay the bill. I remember sitting by the oil lamp listening to my mother play ‘Careless Love’ on the piano.”
Jools Holland, British musician, composer and TV host
It was daunting standing inside one of the yellow box stores and looking for a light bulb. It used to be so easy — choose a 40, 60 or 100-watt bulb that looked like a light bulb and not like a curlicue. Not so anymore.
The chandelier-type fixture over the stairway has five globes. Four of the globes had matching light bulbs, while the fifth had a chandelier bulb. A chandelier base fit the fixture and was all we had at the time. Several factors have to be considered when replacing a bulb. The base and bulb must fit — and if you’re particular, the color the bulb emits and whether the globe is clear, frosted or white. Obviously, we are not particular. How bright the bulb is may or may not matter much. Now I needed a proper bulb, as another bulb in our stairway fixture was burned out.
We keep spare light bulbs in the bottom of a pantry cupboard behind the Longaberger baskets and picnic/party supplies. Picnic/party supplies have a way of building up on you so as to contain red and blue Solo cups from Memorial Day and July 4th, and green cups from spring teas and Christmas, and an assortment of paper plates and colorful napkins. All of these tumbled out of the cupboard while looking for light bulbs. It was a good time to declutter, put the mix-matched bulbs in a container and store them on a shelf in the laundry room. There was no bulb for the stairway fixture — and so the trip to the yellow box store.
Following are tips I found helpful for choosing light bulbs: The bulb’s base and shape are important. A19 is the standard bulb most of us are used to. C is a candle bulb. G is a globe. The “19” refers to size. Bulbs now come in lumens rather than watts. Lumens measure the brightness of light while watts measure energy consumption. For an incandescent bulb, 100 watts equals 1600 lumens, 75 watts equals 1100 lumens, 60 watts equals 800 lumens, 40 watts equals 450 lumens. Some manufactures list the conversion and some don’t.
Another measurement is Kelvin. Kelvin measures the warmth or coolness of the color emitted by the bulb, not of heat but of appearance: 2700-2800k is a warm, yellow color, 3000-3200k is slightly yellow, 3500-4000k is neutral white, 5000-6500k is a bright slightly-blue light. Cool lights are considered for working spaces while warm light is conducive to living areas. Blue lights are thought to inhibit sleep.
The Edison bulb or the standard bulb we grew up with is no longer manufactured. Like it or not, the three basic bulbs are now energy-saving incandescent (halogen), compact fluorescents (CFLS) and LED.
As if all that isn’t enough, there are also “Smart bulbs.” Smart bulbs can connect to Wi-Fi and be controlled from your computer or phone app. Of course, if you lose electricity there’s always the oil lamp, flashlights or candles.
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