GoldCurve Archives - Lamps and Lights

LED filament Vintage Squirrel light bulb

£11.60 – £14.40

Select options Details
LED filament A60 light bulb

£5.60 – £14.40

Select options Details
LED filament Large Globe light bulbs

£14.90 – £18.70

Select options Details

Light Bulb FAQ's

Bulb holder types explainedDenise2021-04-20T10:09:25+01:00

Bulb holder types explained

SBC – small bayonet cap fitting takes a SBC bulb. Also known as B15d . Cap measures 15mm across.
BC – bayonet cap fitting takes a BC bulb. Also known as B22d. Cap measures 22mm across.
SES – small edison screw fitting takes a SES bulb. Also known as E14. Cap measures 14mm across.
ES – edison screw fitting takes an ES bulb. Also known as E27. Cap measures 27mm across.
GES – giant edison screw fitting takes a GES bulb. Also known as E40. Cap measures 40mm across.

How many Watts do I need now with the new LED bulbs?Denise2020-08-17T13:30:53+01:00

How many Watts do I need now with the new LED bulbs?

Lumens and Kelvins are the new unit of measurement for light bulbs.

In the past, the strength of light bulbs was measured in watts, which is actually a measure of power. This isn’t a useful unit of measurement for new energy-saving light bulbs, which consume much less power than old-style incandescent light bulbs. So because comparisons based on wattage are no longer meaningful, the strength of new energy-saving light bulbs is expressed in lumens, which measures instead the amount of light produced; and kelvins – the colour of the light. The higher the number of lumens, the brighter the light. The bulb left is a 60W incandescent squirrel bulb compared to the 4W LED version on the right, the 4W LED version is a bit brighter than the 60W incandescent despite using 15 times less electricity. This is why we can’t use Watts any more to choose or compare light bulbs. So instead think about: “How many lumens do I need”? i.e. the Brightness; and “What Colour Temperature do I want”? Warm, White or Bright. If it’s all just too much! as a very rough guide please see below.

What bulbs can I safely use with your Card Candle Tubes?Denise2020-10-05T14:56:44+01:00

What bulbs can I safely use with your Card Candle Tubes?

Our Candle tubes can generally be used with bulbs up to 40 watts, not a problem with a new LED bulb – usually only a couple of watts.

Candle Tube Flammability Certificate

Please see Test Certification below

Which LED bulb should I choose?Denise2020-11-04T15:29:24+00:00

Which LED bulb should I choose?

Well it’s now all about the Lumens, not Watts. Previously you chose your bulb brightness by the level of Watts i.e a 40, 60 or 100 watt bulb.
But, wattage is not actually the measure of a bulb’s brightness, but is its energy usage. There is then, a direct correlation between watts and the bulb’s brightness in incandescent bulbs but not with an ultra low consumption of a 4 Watt LED bulb.

LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) work differently and so is the way we measure the brightness. As LEDs use far less energy, the amount of watts used is no longer an indicator as to the brightness of the bulb.

Also there is no exact conversion from Watts to LEDs; a traditional 60 watt incandescent bulb can compare to anywhere between 2 and 12 watts in a LED bulb, but don’t panic, it’s just a case of knowing your required Lumen rating. Lumens are the ‘brightness’ measurement provided by a light bulb, and this is what you need to look for when choosing your new LED.

Our comparison guide is an approximation of Watts to Lumens for our bulbs only. An old 40 watt bulb would on average be between 300 to 500 Lumens.

So, now we know where previously we looked at a 40 watt incandescent bulb we may now choose perhaps a 4 watt LED, we may also want to choose our bulb based on the colour emitted. This is referred to as ‘colour temperature’ and is measured in Kelvins – with the higher the number, the whiter and cooler the light given off i.e. anything under 4000K tends to produce a warmer, more gentle light and anything over that produces a cooler brighter white light, mostly used for task areas such as kitchens and work areas.
The average of an old style incandescent was between 2,700 and 3,500 Kelvin. So if colour rendering is your deciding factor then choose your LED bulb by its Kelvin rating.

Which wall dimmers can I use with your bulbs & how many bulbs can I have?Denise2020-10-05T15:02:59+01:00

Which wall dimmers can I use with your bulbs & how many bulbs can I have?

We recommend you use dimmers with our LED bulbs so allowing greater flexibility in differing daylight conditions. Your existing dimmer switches may not work properly with LED bulbs if they are leading edge dimmers and this may lead to a shortened bulb life, a lower light output and a buzzing sound. For an optimum performance, you must use trailing edge dimmers which have lower minimum loads and are designed to be used with LED bulbs. Dimmer switches have a minimum and maximum rating (Watts). LED loading cannot however be calculated in the same way as a traditional incandescent or halogen bulb. A good rule of thumb to apply (one that is used by most manufacturers) is to take the maximum rating of your selected dimmer switch and then divide it by 10. As an example – if you have a dimmer switch with a maximum rating of 200W (rule of thumb translates to 20W) so you can run five of our 4W Squirrel Cage dimmable LED light bulbs.

Which wattage bulb can I use with your lamp holders?Denise2019-05-13T11:49:40+01:00

Which wattage bulb can I use with your lamp holders?

Our BC and SBC range of lampholders are both 2 amp rated so you can use a bulb up to 60W.
Our ES are higher amp rated at 4 amps so you can use a bulb of up to 100W. Most LED bulbs are now only a few Watts.
Please see our Light Bulbs FAQs for more details and help in choosing the right LED bulb.

The other consideration when choosing a bulb is what shade will be used. Generally the shade should have the same wattage rating as the bulb. So whilst you can rate the lamp holder this could change with the use of a fabric or paper shade and caution should be taken and advice taken from a qualified electrician.