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My old desk lamp uses G9, 40W Halogen capsule light bulbs and I love how warm it feels. My new lamp uses E14 LED bulbs (200 lumen, 2500k) and it's a lot weaker and colder. I don't know if it's colder because it's weaker or not.

Is there another type of bulb that would be both compatible with my lamp and recreate a lighting as strong and warm as my halogen lamp, or at least come much closer to it?

drake035
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  • How many lumens did those old G9 bulbs kick out, and can you get any color temp specs on them? – ThreePhaseEel May 09 '20 at 16:39
  • Are you after light, or heat? Because "stronger" and "warmer" are all about heat. – Harper - Reinstate Monica May 09 '20 at 17:05
  • @ThreePhaseEel: box doesn't mention lumens, found similar product online where it states 350 lumens / 6000k but I can't guarantee it's the exact same bulb. Harper-ReinstateMonica: light is too weak that's for sure, I don't know if it would feel warmer if it was stronger. I'm after more both light and more heat. – drake035 May 09 '20 at 17:21
  • 6000k is considered bright white not a warm color going for a color spectrum around 4500k will be a warmer color (more yellow/ orange less blue) – Ed Beal May 10 '20 at 06:42
  • 6000k is possibly (but maybe not) the temperature of my old lamp's bulbs, which I find perfectly warm. The bulbs of my new lamp are 2500k. Should I conclude that the problem is wattage, and if so what should I buy instead? – drake035 May 10 '20 at 10:30
  • The Kelvin scale is a color temperature scale, it is not about heat. The low end of the scale 2500k, is referred to as warm because it is yellow and looks warm, neutral looking light is in the 4500k to 5000k range, The higher end of the scale, 6000k, is referred to as cool because it blueish and looks cool. None of this has any thing to do with heat. Lumen's are a measurement of brightness. The lumen levels should not effect the color temp, but bulb with higher lumen's will produce more actual heat then one with a lower lumen level. increasing lumen's does not change the Kelvin temp. – Alaska Man May 10 '20 at 17:50

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Every cousin-in-law I know comes to me with the same story: They need a way to know when a light bulb has burned out. "Well, just look at it." "Well, I can't, it's out in the doghouse or chicken coop". (suspecting what's really called for here is a switch to LED) "Why do dogs/chickens need light?" "They don't. They need heat. I'm using it to heat their space during the winter chills. Loss of the heat places them in danger."

#include picard_facepalm.gif

And my answer is... Get an Actual Heater. And I go hit McMaster-Carr and (we're in 120V territory) find an industrial 240V heating element 4x their desired wattage, or a 480V element 16x their desired wattage, and I say "Install this". And then they do, and 2 winters later they say "Thank you".

Heat

The problem here is that you are abusing your light to be a comfort heater. And you have confused "warm" thermally and "strong" as signs of a good bulb (actually, in lighting, "warm" means something else, it means color of light blue vs orange). Actually they are signs of an inefficient bulb that starts fires.

So find a way to get an actual heater that gives you the warmth you crave. It can be hard finding a 40W heater, and I gather you're outside North America, which makes things tougher - as any heating element will either be 230V or 400V, and running a 400V heater on 230V gives 1/3 the heat. (230/400 squared).

Light

Halogens are good for roughly 15 lumens/watt. So your 40W halogen was about 600 lumens.

You say your new lamp is 200 lumens. That explains why it seems dimmer. It is dimmer.

But that's because you willingly chose an LED bulb that is very dim, even by that bulb size's standards. For instance "Buy this with this" engine on Ikea's site recommends this bulb, which is 470 lumens.

I don't know what to tell you. You bought it. Buy something else.

Harper - Reinstate Monica
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