Lighting fixture question re: incandescent bulbs "or CFL equivalents"

Factual Questions
1

I just bought a light fixture which takes 3 bulbs - the manufacturer says to use 60 watt bulbs maximum, “or CFL equivalents”.

Three incandescent bulbs x 60 watts each leaves me to believe 180 watts (and the heat generated from such bulbs) is all the device was designed to safely handle.

The CFL bulbs that put out a similar amount of light as 60 watt incandescents only draw 13 watts each, and don’t get nearly as hot…which leads me to wonder, if I want more light, can’t I safely use 100-watt CFL equivalents, which draw 23 watts each?

That would only be 69 watts total (3 x 23), and the bulbs wouldn’t get as hot as the 60 watt incandescents - which should be well within the limits of what the fixture can handle, no?

2

Exactly right. The fixture is rated to dissipate 180W of heat. All it cares about is the actual watts being drawn by the bulbs you install, not how many lumens you’re getting from them.

3

Yes, you can, if you can find such bulbs. I’d be surprised if you could find them, though.

4

These are the sorts of bulbs I’m talking about - “100 watt equivalent”, 23 watt CFL’s - they’re available almost anywhere that sells light bulbs!

5

:smack: My bad. I thought were looking for a CFL that actually used 60W; the same as the incandescents.

6

Physically fitting them can be an issue depending on design. CFLs and even LEDs can get to big when you go above 60 watt equivalent sizes.

7

Thanks for the replies, it seemed to make sense to me that 23W CFLs (that physically fit) would be just fine from a safety standpoint - on a related note, if I go that route it would probably be in conjunction with a CFL-compatible dimmer switch, which I’ve never used before - do they generally work well?

8

You need to buy dimmable-CFL. or get a CFL designed (non-legacy) dimmer and use regular CFL

dimmable CFL are more expensive. not crippling though.

also consider LED’s, the way of the future :slight_smile: