Using E26 bulbs in New Zealand

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colinfleming

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#295542 5-Apr-2022 18:02

Hi all,

I've been investigating low-drama options for increasing the lighting in our house. The house is gloomy and my wife really suffers. We're going to paint the walls white, but we need more light too. We don't have great options in terms of changing circuits etc around or installing downlights since we have a skillion roof with wooden ceilings.

I've read this article and several follow-ups to it, and I'd like to try his solution of just getting a 7-way splitter and putting some high-lumen LED bulbs in it. It's easy to source the parts from the US, but they're E26 fittings, not E27. I've hunted around and found an E27 equivalent for the splitter on AliExpress which looks decent, but I can't find a decent replacement for the bulbs. For reference, the ones he links are Cree bulbs, 100W equivalent, 1600 lumens, 5000k temp and 90+ CRI. They also have a 125W equivalent at 2000 lumens. I can't find anything like these - Mitre 10 has a 19W Philips bulb at 2150 lumens, but they only have 3000K or 6500K, and the CRI is 80. I can't find any high-lumen 90+ CRI E27 bulbs at all, either here or in the EU/UK.

There are a lot of articles online saying that E26 and E27 are interchangeable, but there are some like this one which claim that there's an increased risk of shorting or fire putting E26 bulbs in E27 sockets. My electrical knowledge isn't good enough to evaluate what they're saying - is this a realistic risk, or not something to worry about? My life would be easier if I could use E26.

Cheers,

Colin

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#2897332 5-Apr-2022 20:49

https://www.waveformlighting.com/home-residential/e26-vs-e27-bulbs-are-they-interchangeable:
In general, bulbs with an E27 designation are safe to use in E26 lampholders, but E26 bulbs may pose an electrical safety hazard when used in E27 lampholders and 240V AC.

In the event of an electrical fire, you may find your insurance doesn't cover you - that's a risk to consider.

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colinfleming

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2897333 5-Apr-2022 20:51

Thanks, that was the link I tried to post, looks like I can't link yet due to being new. Yes, that's definitely a consideration.

Nate001

607 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2897336 5-Apr-2022 21:14

colinfleming:

My electrical knowledge isn't good enough to evaluate what they're saying.

I think you've summed it up yourself, if you're unsure you should probably avoid it no matter the advice you get here. Get a sparky in if you need more lights.

I personally would avoid it for risk of overdrawing power and risk of fire. Remember all might be well if you put lower wattage bulbs in and total power stays under the ratings of the original fitting, but the risk is someone comes along some day and decides they want to put in 7x60W bulbs resulting in a 420W load without knowing or understanding the setup.

richms

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#2897353 5-Apr-2022 21:48

The main concern with US lamp holders is the whole thread is one contact rather than just a terminal at the bottom, and they don't have appropriate finger shrouding to meet whatever the EU standard is that I cant recall now.

Bad.

That center terminal will fold down, and you will screw the bulb in harder to make it connect, and the outer thread is all connected to (hopefully) neutral so if you touch it while trying to make the lamp work again, it may shock you. There should be more plastic above the thread to make sure that fingers cant get into the gap.

Better:

Outer thread has a terminal on the side that only connects when its screwed in, and a spring behind the middle contact to stop it from being crushed down to the point of not connecting.

You probably wont find a real E26 or e27 on any LED lamp, they are all plastic simulants of it that allow for manufacturing with the middle contact being something pushed into the plastic of the cap, on incandescent lamps they were a black ceramicy stuff and are very different looking things with the contact being much wider on all of them. For that first lamp holder it would be getting uncomfortably close to the contact for the thread when screwed in to the holder hard and can get close enough to short out.

Also you have a weight issue on the holders, 7 LED lamps of any decent quality will pull hard, and the only thing holding the fitting up is the thread into the lamp holder. Its hold on to the bulb splitter with a hand full of indents around the side of the thread into whatever the crap plastic they have made it out of which was too brittle for $2 shop toys.

I would probably at most consider those garage lighting style lamps with the 3 or 4 tilting panels on them for something to go into a lamp holder that makes more light.

Richard rich.ms

Scott3

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#2897358 5-Apr-2022 21:59

Personally I wouldn't get too hung up on CRI, unless you are doing something color accuracy critical (art restoration?) - the fact that color's don't render perfectly doesn't mean things look bad. Most people do just fine with CRI 80 lights.

Also I wouldn't get to hung up on color temperature. This is more of a personal taste thing. Again, stuff doesn't look bad under different colored light.

With this in mind I would just pick up a really high lumen LED bulb and give it a try. I would go for 3000 Kelvin myself. Some options depending on what will fit your fixture:

4000lm high bay light:

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/philips-tforce-led-lamp-40w-4000-lumen-e27-3000-kelvin/p/377650

2700 Lm light

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/philips-trueforce-led-lamp-22-watt-warm-white/p/377656

2200 lm 'bulb as a Luminaire" / UFO:

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/philips-24w-warm-white-ceiling-led-es-bulb_p0161039

Alternatively you could have the current fixtures swapped out something with built in LED's.

colinfleming

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2897411 6-Apr-2022 08:31

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Thanks also for those options, Scott, I hadn't found that first one when I was searching, that looks like a great option to start with.

richms

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#2903793 19-Apr-2022 12:54

This from crappy electrical on facebook is what you will end up looking like ;)

Richard rich.ms

colinfleming

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#2905024 21-Apr-2022 17:16

More like this in the end. Those bulbs are 36W, 3600 lumens, 95+ CRI. In the end I just swapped out the bayonet fittings for E27 and plugged those in. There are a few spots that will need more lighting and that near one needs diffusing, but my wife is very happy - it's like daylight in there.

Mehrts

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#2905031 21-Apr-2022 17:36

A white/light coloured ceiling would do wonders with increasing light levels in that area.

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colinfleming

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2905034 21-Apr-2022 17:59

Definitely, gibbing or painting between the rafters is something we're considering. We're also going to have the walls painted white. But before covering up all the wood, we'd like to see how far we can get just adding more light.

Eva888

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#2905109 21-Apr-2022 19:46

We have high wooden ceilings and a similar problem. Your light source is illuminating the ceiling where you don't need light so instead of having the bulb directly in the socket fitting and dispersing light high across the ceiling, hanging lights on a long cable with a shade to direct light downward will make a huge difference, also to the ambience. We have very long double hanging lights in strategic places. The one in the ridge area is about 2.8 meters long.

colinfleming

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Wannabe Geek

#2905113 21-Apr-2022 20:11

Thanks for the suggestion. It's hard to see in the photo, but that near light is about standard stud height, so there's not much room (or need) to drop it down. I'm definitely planning to put a downward-facing shade on it, though.

The living area is a different story, the highest point on the ceiling is about 8m up! In our previous place we had a similar style house and a similar problem, initially we put downlights in but found that it would leave big dark patches in the corners at the top of the roof, which made the place feel gloomy even though we probably had more lux on the floor. Is that a problem in your place? We're planning to keep the existing pendant lights in the living area so that some light goes upwards, but also come up with a way to get more light coming down from the ceiling.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#2905123 21-Apr-2022 21:33

Getting a sparkie (or you can DIY if competent; it is within homeowners' exemption) to swap the fittings for nice 40W LED buttons or battens could be a better option. You'll get ~5k+ lumens and they're going away from the ceiling. Cooling is also going to be significantly better so the drivers won't be cooked like they will with LED bulbs mounted fitting-up.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#2905124 21-Apr-2022 21:47

Something like this is an obvious choice: https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/orbit-lighting-wave-light-led-36-watt-1200mm-white/p/296811

itey

470 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2905128 21-Apr-2022 22:11

We had a similar issue with a high truss roof with no accessible space between the ceiling and roof - just enough space for the insulation. We wanted to install recessed led downlights. Our electrician ended up using a fibreoptic camera to thread new electrical wire through between the ceiling and roof. Just an idea if that works for you

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