What does it mean when it says a light bulb is frosted?

When a light bulb is frosted in finish, it is not clear and thus will cast a more subtle light. There are two ways a manufacturer can achieve a frosted finish. They will either use a phosphorus mixture along the inside of the glass or will use an etching technique to get the frosted finish.

Holly Eddins

If my table lamp says use now more than a 60 watt bulb, can I use a lower watt flourescent bulb that puts out lumens of a 100 watt bulb?

That's a great question. As long as your table lamp is not enclosed you should be fine. You are referring to a 23 or 27 watt cfl that would be equivalent to a 100 watt incandescent bulb.

There are two factors to consider, one is the draw of energy that the table lamp is made to take. This is no problem since the wattage you'll be using is so much less. The second is the heat generated. CFLs still generate a fair amount of heat in their ballasts but as long as the fixture you are using it in isn't enclosed, you should be fine. Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rule.

Holly Eddins

Can I use a different wattage plug in cfl light bulb than what I'm using now?

Can I use a lower wattage or a higher wattage cfl plug in light bulb than what I'm using now? We often get this question and the answer is maybe. You will need to stay within the same collection that you are currently using. So, if you are using a PL-L, you will need to stick with a different PL-L. Or using a PL-C, you will need to stay with a PL-C.

There are two things to be considered when you are looking to go up or down in wattage with your compact fluorescent plug in light bulb. First, you'll want to insure that the base is exactly the same type of base. If you look at the line drawing to the left, you'll see that these 2 bases differ by 1 number on the end. Looking at the side view, they don't look very different but when you look at the bottom view, you can see that the pins are in different positions on the bulb. So, a bulb made with a GX32d-3 base will not fit in a GX32d-2 base.

The second thing to consider is that when you go up or down in wattage you will often change the length of bulb that you'll be buying. IE. A Philips PL-C that is a 26 watt is 6 1/2" in overall length where the 18 watt in the same style is 5 11/16" in over all length. After taking into account these two things, you can safely make your decision on whether or not you can substitute a different wattage plug in bulb for the one you are currently using.

Holly Eddins