How To Choose A Great Bulb - Our Go To Guide
How to choose a great bulb. Our go-to guide.
It can be hard to figure out which bulbs are suited to which lights. Don’t spend all your time trying to decipher all of the strange terms associated with bulbs when we can do it for you! Here is everything you need to know when choosing a bulb for your lights and space.
1. We actually recommended bulbs with 90% of our lights.
That’s right! We have added a recommended bulb option when purchasing most of our lights online. Sometimes you don’t need to know WHY you should choose the bulb. You just need to know that we have selected a great bulb because of its beautiful design and very economical output. Our most popular recommendations are most commonly the Tala series of bulbs that we sell on our website like the Porcelain II matt white bulbs or the Elva clear bulbs.
2. Fitting types
The most common question: Does this bulb fit my light? Most lights should feature details about the specifications of the light and bulbs required. This can come as a list of details that will include the ‘Bulb fitting’ or as a specification sheet with the same information. This will be the bulb type that you're looking for and will help you narrow down the search.To make it easy, all bulbs have a specific fitting number. The most common (and ones we use) are:
- E27 (screw fit),
- E14 (smaller screw fit)
- B22 (medium sized push and twist bayonet)
- B15 (small sized push and twist bayonet)
3. Design and shape/size
When purchasing beautiful designed lighting, it only makes sense to purchase bulbs that complement. With many shapes available in a range of sizes it can be tricky to know what's what.
We specifically pair many of our lights with Tala’s range of designer bulbs, because they are beautifully made, long lasting & are very eco in design and usage. It's important to know which bulbs will fit your light. But don't worry, we have that covered.
Our lights only ever feature bulbs that we sell in our shop, so if our lights are recommended with our B22 bulb for example, you can check the specification of that bulb and see exactly what size fits! This means if you're purchasing more in the future from us if needed, or from any other retailer with confidence.
If your purchasing any lights with a shade, you may want to know what the diameter of of an opening is. Many lights will have a spec sheet with line drawings, measurements and lists of details included that should tell you exactly what you need to know. The same goes for bulbs. Most will have the dimensions listed.
There are a few main shapes referred to in the ‘bulb world’ the most common are: Golfball, Globe, Traditional (like a tear drop), Candle & Twisted.
There are many shapes and sizes, some small, some large. Some are minimalist while others are grand and abstract like the Tala Voronoi
4. Bulb colour/ coating & tint
We love taking advantage of a coated or tinted bulb in design. The colour and coating of a bulb can affect how soft the emitted light is, as well as altering the colour temperature slightly. There are three common versions that you might see:- Clear (traditional Edison clear bulbs) - Often featuring beautiful filament style LED design inside.
- Opal / White - Our favourite bulb type, white bulbs are often used in interior design as they compliment and contrast against other aspects of design. Also great for creating softer diffused lighting.
- Tinted - Often with a brownish tint, these bulbs are typically warmer and may be used as a feature in bare bulb lighting.
Our most popular bulb is the Tala Porcelain II. This is a matt white opal style globe bulb that really pairs perfectly with the majority of our lights.
Brightness:
Some of you savvy interior designers out there may think that we are talking about Wattage when we explain the brightness of a bulb. However as bulbs are moving towards LED’s (like all of the bulbs we recommend), it's better off to refer to the Lumens of each bulb for an accurate picture of the brightness.
Why?
A traditional filament bulb of 40-45w is equivalent to our Tala Porcelain II LED bulb which is only 6w. Here is where Lumens come in:
For a good brightness for a home, you should look for a LED bulb between 450 - 600 Lumens. This is a standard brightness range and should meet most needs for lighting your space. For example, the Porcelain II is 540Lumens. Which is a perfect brightness for most areas. We have created a handy chart below for you to help explain this.
Lumen Vs Watts comparison chart. Efficiency of LED bulbs explained.
| Lumens (Brightness) | Incandescent (Watts) | LED (Watts) |
| 450 Lumens | 45 Watts | 4 - 6 Watts |
| 800 Lumens | 60 Watts | 9 - 10 Watts |
| 1200 Lumens | 75 Watts | 13 - 15 Watts |
| 2600 Lumens | 100 Watts | 16 - 18 Watts |
(Lumen output can vary slightly)
Efficiency & eco bulbs:
One of the core reasons we love Tala and their lightbulbs is because of their amazing eco efficiency. Their lightbulbs use a whopping 90% less energy than standard incandescent bulbs, and last 10 times longer due to the amazing LED technology inside. And our absolutely favourite feature:
Of course, this isn't just applicable to Tala, there are many LED bulbs out there now that are far friendlier to the environment than traditional bulbs and with a bit of research you may find that a lot of manufacturers even offset their carbon emissions from production.
”Switching just 1 lamp in your home to a Tala LED bulb prevents 0.3 metric tonnes of carbon from being emitted. Every purchase also funds forest restoration programmes globally, which also tackles existing emissions already in the atmosphere.”
