I've been changing the incandescent light bulbs out in my house with CFLs but I'm a little stumped with some of our bulbs. It seems that the 4 ceiling fans in our house use e14 sized light bulbs. For those of you that are like me and have never heard of an e14 sized light bulb it is larger than a candelabra but smaller than a standard (e27). It seems e14 light bulbs are semi-rare here in the states and I can't seem to find a CFL e14 bulb anywhere. I'd like to get rid of them and put something more energy efficient in there, anyone have any ideas? Edit: Actually looks like candelabra bulbs are like e12... e14 wouldn't be much bigger than that I think I have e17 bulbs i my ceiling fan
If you want the ultimate in efficient lighting without the guilt of using a CFL (mercury) invest in LED bulbs. There is a bit, or a lot, of sticker shock but you will make up the difference and then some compared to incandescents over the lifetime of the bulb. As an additional note, NEVER throw CFL's or flourescent bulbs in the trash. It's environmentally reckless AND illegal in many states. Lighting Science Group and Cree are the highest tech and efficient bulbs but there are other companies as well. They work well in fans too and many are dimmable with standard dimmers.
Do LED bulds work in fixtures where the bulb faces up? I have a wall lamp, with the bulb oriented up. I thought LED bulbs are directional. Also, what is a good source for LED bulbs?
Up, down, directional and non-directional, they are all out there. Lighting Science, Lighting Science Group Corporation has probably some of the most high end LED's through their daughter companies Eyeleds and Lamina. Lighting Science Group is the company that did last years and this years new Times Square New Years Eve Ball and other high profile projects Lighting Science Group Corporation Do a Google search for "LED lighting" and you will find many results that you can peruse on-line and purchase. But a forewarning: the sticker shock kind of stinks because LED lighting is mostly used in commercial application and just hasn't caught up with residential demand .
To the OP,, Try here :Energy Saving Store Home They have as good a selection as anyone I've ever seen, and they deal fairly, although a quick look reveled no e-14's. To Helio, I agree that LEDs are the future, but I haven't yet to find any with the quality of light and the lumens that I need. We live off grid for much of the year on solar so I am always looking for ways to save even a few watt/minutes. I use LEDs for lighting in seldom used areas to give enough light to get to the cfl switch. I just recently got a bunch of LED christmas lights with a warm white tint. I strung them through the mud room so that you can get into the house without a real light. ~40 LED string, burns ~1.5 watts, puts out almost as much light as a 40 watt twinkle bulb string. Icarus
Think outside the bun ... cfl ~ led - incan, what ever ... do what we did ... just get adapters to use what ever size lamp base you want ... they sell 'em all over the web. I think this one (the 1st page I googled) was about the going rate of $3.00 Good luck.
I agree, Icarus. The affordable bulbs aren't that great in brightness or color. Until LED's can break the 100 lumen/watt barrier and come down in price, they just aren't going to surpass CFL's in residential. Cree has some great recessed lighting with a Color Rendering Index of 94 but the price for these kind of bulbs are well over $100. Lighting Science has a wider range of bulbs with pretty good CRI, but again, the price is pretty crazy. I never thought about running Christmas lights for that kind of application, that's a great idea and they are way cheap right now since it's after Christmas!
Another option is to change to a light kit for the fan that will permit the use of standard inexpensive CFL's in place of the e14's. I've been replacing vanity fixtures in bathrooms as well as chandeliers. The old fixtures/chandeliers are either unattractive/cheap looking or too glitzy. Even worse was that the chandeliers used candelabra bulbs and the vanities had globes. The globe CFL's that I tested have been disappointing in that after a few weeks of use they began starting up at less than 50% intensity before warming up (plus they were about 2-3X expensive per bulb vs. regular spirals) So I only selected and installed fixtures that would work well with standard spiral CFL's.
