A lamp comes with a max bulb rating of say 60 W. What determines this max rating and what can be done to increase it?

A lamp comes with a max bulb rating of say 60 W. What determines this max rating and what can be done to increase it? I want to take a 60 W max bulb rated lamp and use a higher watt bulb in it.Do I need to replace the socket or what?

Asked by Termite7 59 months ago Similar questions: lamp max bulb rating 60 determines increase Science.

Similar questions: lamp max bulb rating 60 determines increase.

The max rating is determined by the lamp's heat resistance Some lamps are made to be more resistant to heat than others. When the lamp says it can take a 60 watt bulb max, it means it can withstand the heat given off by a 60 watt incandescent bulb. If you put a 75 or 100 watt bulb in there, the lamp might burst into flame, or melt, or both.

You can try to replace some of the components of the lamp, especially the socket, since that part actually touches the bulb and can get very hot. But you might not be able to tell exactly what part of the lamp is most vulnerable to heat. It might be the shade, or the wiring, or even the paint.

I suppose it is even possible that the switch not be able to take the current draw of a higher wattage lamp (unlikely though. ) I assume you just want more light? A better idea than putting a higher wattage bulb inside would be to put in a compact fluorescent (or "CF") bulb.

They are the kind that have a thin spiral tube, but still screw into a regular socket. They put out a lot less heat and a lot more light for the same electricity. Incandescent light bulbs are extremely inefficient ways to produce light.

Specifically, a 60 watt incandescent bulb puts out about 4 watt's worth of light and 56 watts of heat. (A "watt" is just a unit of work, so it can be applied to heat or light, or any other kind of work. ) An 12 watt CF bulb puts out the same amount of light, but only 8 watts of heat.

And they produce a nice warm white light, with no flicker. So with a CF bulb, you could put a big honking powerful light bulb in there, say a 35 watt, and get the same light you would get from a 150 watt incandescent, without having to worry about hurting your lamp. CF bulbs also last about 10 times longer than incandescents.

They cost more, but you save money in the long run (which isn't even that long. Cheap CF bulbs can pay for themselves within a month. ) Over its lifetime a CF bulb can save $40 in electricity costs.In fact, from an economic point of view it would make sense to replace every light bulb you have with a CF bulb, immediately (assuming you pay your own electrical bills.

) And you are helping to slow down global warming! The only downside to CF bulbs is that if you want to use a dimmer or a three-way switch (i.e. , high, medium, low), you have to get a special version.

I get mine at 1000 Bulbs, but they are available everywhere. You can get cheap ones at Costco and Home Depot. Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_bulb#Efficie..., en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent .

You can't. The max wattage is defined based on the entire lamp design. This means: Wiring, fabric used, heat emission, and other.

Therefore, there is no way to safely increase the max wattage of your lamp without putting yourself in danger of setting the thing on fire. What you can do, is using SL lamps. They provide far more light, at lower wattages, and with little heat emission.

You can easily use SL bulbs with an equivalent of 120 Watts, doubling your light emission from the lamp. Sources: My knowledge .

Play safe - buy another lamp I can thing of two (good) reasons for the max bulb rating: heat - some parts of the lamp may get burn or melt; electric insulation - cables, sockets, or connections may not support the current for higher watt bulbs. On your shoes I would either buy another lamp or try those small-regular-socket-fluorescent bulbs. With lower watts, they deliver more light than incandescent ones - they may not fit your lamp though...

It's a safety thing. Overload may cause fire! Power is measured in Watts, and is computed by the voltage (in volts) multiplied times the current (in amperes or amps).

Power dissipated is directly related to heat generated. A 60 W incandescent light bulb runs off of 120 volts AC and uses 0.5 amps. That's it.

The wattage of a light bulb is only indirectly related to the light output, by the way. A socket is rated for the amount of power it can safely pass to the bulb. So a 60 W socket can pass 0.5 amps of current to a light running at 120 VAC safely.(The amount of current a bulb needs is related to the resistance of the filament.

The socket does not "limit" the current, but passes as much as is required by the bulb to keep the voltage at 120 VAC. ) If you plug in a 100 W bulb in the socket, the socket is now passing 0.83 amps of current. If you plug in a 200 W bulb, the socket is now passing 1.66 amps of current, or over three times the rated current!

The socket's wattage is based on the size of the wiring within the lamp, the thickness of the conductors that pass the current to the bulb, and the temperature that the socket can withstand. If you put a higher wattage bulb in a socket, you risk electrical fire by the socket burning or the wiring burning. If you want a higher wattage bulb, you will need to replace the socket and possibly the wiring.

Sources: I'm an electrical engineer.

Wiring (you are probably OK to use a larger watt bulb) The wires inside of the lamp determine the maximum wattage that can be used in it. Usually lamps come standard with size 14 wire. If you increase the wire running through the lamp and into the plug, you can use a larger wattage bulb.

Keep in mind that if there are multiple bulbs you need to account for that in the calculation below, also, the soldering connections need to be checked. Chances are the wires in the lamp are plenty big enough to support up to 150W bulb, unless you have multiple bulbs or a really old lamp (check soldering). Here is a chart to determine what wattage (watts=amperage*115V) you can use based on wire size: (i.e.

For a 100 W bulb, you need 0.9 amps, so you would need at least a size 22 wire (0.0254 in Diameter) use 21 to be safe) AWG gauge Diameter Inches Diameter mm Ohms per 1000 ft Maximum amps for power transmission OOOO 0.46 11.684 0.049 302 OOO 0.4096 10.40384 0.0618 239 OO 0.3648 9.26592 0.0779 190 0 0.3249 8.25246 0.0983 150 1 0.2893 7.34822 0.1239 119 2 0.2576 6.54304 0.1563 94 3 0.2294 5.82676 0.197 75 4 0.2043 5.18922 0.2485 60 5 0.1819 4.62026 0.3133 47 6 0.162 4.1148 0.3951 37 7 0.1443 3.66522 0.4982 30 8 0.1285 4.11483 0.6282 24 9 0.1144 2.90576 0.7921 19 10 0.1019 2.58826 0.9989 15 11 0.0907 2.30378 4.11483 12 12 0.0808 2.05232 1.588 9.3 13 0.072 4.11483 2.003 7.4 14 0.0641 1.62814 2.525 5.9 15 0.0571 1.45034 3.184 4.7 16 0.0508 1.29032 4.016 3.7 17 0.0453 1.15062 5.064 2.9 18 0.0403 1.02362 6.385 2.3 19 0.0359 0.91186 8.051 1.8 20 0.032 0.8128 4.11483 1.5 21 0.0285 0.7239 12.8 1.2 22 0.0254 0.64516 14.11483 0.92 23 0.0226 0.57404 20.36 0.729 24 0.0201 0.51054 24.11483 0.577 25 0.0179 0.45466 34.11483 0.457 26 0.0159 0.40386 40.81 0.361 27 0.0142 0.36068 54.11483 0.288 28 0.0126 0.32004 64.9 0.226 29 0.0113 0.28702 84.11483 0.182 30 0.01 0.254 103.2 0.142 31 0.0089 0.22606 130.1 0.113 32 0.008 0.2032 164.1 0.091 Metric 2.0 0.00787 0.200 164.11483 0.088 33 0.0071 0.18034 206.9 0.072 Metric 1.8 0.00709 0.180 207.5 0.072 34 0.0063 0.16002 260.9 0.056 Metric 1.6 0.0063 0.16002 260.9 0.056 35 0.0056 0.14224 329 0.044 Metric 1.4 .00551 .140 339 0.043 36 0.005 0.127 414.8 0.035 Metric 4.11483 .00492 0.125 428.2 0.034 37 0.0045 0.1143 523.1 0.0289 Metric 4.11483 .00441 0.112 533.8 0.0277 38 0.004 0.1016 659.6 0.0228 Metric 1 .00394 0.1000 670.2 0.0225 39 0.0035 0.0889 831.8 0.0175 40 0.0031 0.07874 1049 0.0137 Sources: http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm .

I just want to restate what karlc wrote in case someone comes across this thread and gets confused. It should be OK to use CFL bulbs of a higher "wattage" in a standard incandescent socket to get brighter light. I am not arguing with the electrical engineers or the electricians, I am sure that plugging a higher wattage bulb in a socket will overheat the socket, wire and who knows what else, causing damage or fire.

The thing to remember with CFL bulbs though is that they have their actual wattage and then they list what the standard incandescent equivalent would have to be get the same light. The whole point of CFL bulbs is to be more energy efficient and consume less power. I have been using some 27watt (100watt equivalent) CFL bulbs in 60watt light sockets for awhile now.

The CFL bulbs actually tend to put out slightly less light compared to what they are rated against (a 13w CFL that is supposed to compare in brightness to a 60w incandescent puts out slightly less lumens than the incandescent it's compared to). Even though it's often slight, 50 or so lumens less, it's noticeable to me because I have several down pointing sockets in my house and the CFL bulbs will actually say in the fine print that if they are pointed down they will be up to 5% less bright than in other positions. I don't know why this is, perhaps there is more strain on the mechanisms and they don't perform as well, or maybe the way a CFL disperses light, it's best to be on it's side for maximum spread?

To overcome this I switched to a 27watt CFL (compares to a 100watt incandescent). This should be safe even by the standards posted here. The GE Reveal 27w CFL I am using is a 120VAC 400ma (.4 amp) light.

This is safely under the ratings of the socket and is putting out closer to the equivalent light of a 100watt incandescent bulb, HUGE difference in light output and it's still using less power than the 60watt standard bulb that was in there! So really I just wanted to clarify. These guys are correct and I realize that the initial question was in regards to modifying the lamp or perhaps using a standard bulb, but I just wanted to say for those wanting to verify down the road, you don't have to modify or buy higher wattage sockets and lamps.

A valid option is to use a CFL of a higher equivalent light output for less wattage. You won't see the same savings as if you were using the intended CFL target (a 60watt equivalent CFL bulb is the 13watt models) but it is certainly much brighter and still saves power. There are plenty of CFL bulbs made to fit the old style sockets and they even have many of the color temperatures available, from soft white all the way to daylight.

If your nervous just check your socket or lamp ratings and then make sure you get a CFL that is safely within that range! As a side, many CFL bulbs will give milliamps (ma) rather than amps. Just divide the bulbs milliamp rating into a 1000 to get the amps.

" "Hall ceiling lamp says Risk of Fire. Use 60W Lamp Max. Fixture calls for 3 lamps.

It is 60W each, or 60 total? Thx" "Can a CFL with an output of 100 watts be used in a lamp that says max 60 watts? " "Lamp sticker says "max 60 watts type a lamp or use max 15w CFL lamp".

Why not a 26w CFL bulb if it can take a 60w reg.?" "I have a ceiling light fixture that says 60 watt light bulb max. Can I use a 100 watt bulb? What are the dangers?" "Can I put a 13 watt compact fluor. Bulb (equivalent to 60 watt reg.

Bulb in light output) into a "40 watt max" fixture?

Hall ceiling lamp says Risk of Fire. Use 60W Lamp Max. Fixture calls for 3 lamps.It is 60W each, or 60 total?

Thx.

Lamp sticker says "max 60 watts type a lamp or use max 15w CFL lamp". Why not a 26w CFL bulb if it can take a 60w reg.?

Can I put a 13 watt compact fluor. Bulb (equivalent to 60 watt reg. Bulb in light output) into a "40 watt max" fixture?

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