Home Electric Question

Does anyone know how to tell the maximum wattage of an unmarked light fixture? I just moved into a new house where one of the previous owners switched out the garage ceiling fluorescent with an incandescent, but the usual warning/wattage message is missing. The last owner had no idea, so he just used a 60 watt, but it is a bit dim. I'm going to switch it back to fluorescent, but would like a bit more light in the meantime.

I would go with a 23 watt compact fluorescent.
Rex

What about LED Lights?

Get the biggest wattage LED you can find and put it in there. Even the largest (I think "100 Watt equivalent") won't actually pull anywhere near the rated wattage for the fixture or put out damaging amounts of heat. Those 100 W-E LEDs are pretty bright!

Get the daylight version, not soft white. Only issue with the LED I've been buying (besides cost) is the shadow they create near the base. They only seem to light up the front, not all around like a compact fluorescent or incandenscent.

Mike

Thanks everyone!

Ditto on "Daylight" (5000K to 6500K) color temperature for me.
I prefer closer to 6500K.
A couple tables that show ~ equivalents of a few types.

You will be very happy with the light from a daylight LED. Also in contrast with compact fluorescents, LEDs are not effected by cold temperatures and are instant on.

My personal preference are LED bulbs from Phillips which has been developing LED bulb since the mid-'90s and have engineered the thermal issues really well. The no-name brands of LEDs and CF bulbs are many times not engineered and do not last. In LED and CF bulbs, the type of capacitor and the thermal sinking of it determine the lifetime of the lamp. Phillips and other brand names have done it right and the caps stay below 85C so the lamps will last well over 20,000 hours. Cheap no-name knockoffs may look the same, but can have the capacitors heating to 135C due to poor or non-existent heat-sinking, and when this occurs, the bulbs last no longer than an incandescent!

You will also be amazed how much you save on your electric bill, especially if you get discounted LED and CF bulbs from your electric company. CFs use 20%-25% of the power of an equivalent incandescent bulb and LEDS use 10%-15% and last longer. 1 CF bulb will outlast 10-20 incandescent bulbs and 1 LED will outlast 2 to 3 CF bulbs and 25-50 incandescent bulbs. Payback time depends on use, but can be as short as 1 year if you leave your lights on.

If you ignore the cost of the bulbs, a 100 watt incandescent will cost $16 per 1000 hours of on-time @ $0.16 per kwh, the CF will cost not more than $4 per 1000 hours and the LED not more than $3 per 1000 hours. Having one on 24/7 over a year cost $140, $35, and $26 respectively just for power, and that year you will go through about 8 incandescent bulbs, whereas the CF is good for 2.5 years and the LED for 6+. Even when you throw in the cost of the bulbs, the cost stabing using CF or LED lighting is huge: annual costs are $148, $43, and $31 per light-year respectively.

Your costs will vary depending on your electric rates and bulb costs, but modern lighting saves you money and also means you don't have to change bulbs several times a year.

Bob