Candelabra bulbs?

[N8N]

Good evening all

I think I may have done messed up.

Basically I need a wall mounted outdoor light fixture to go next to a front door. I've been stopping at ReStore maybe twice a week for a while now and today they had one. It looks very nice although it is significantly larger than any of the other similar fixtures on the street (row houses).

I just realized something; of course, after I paid for the new fixture and walked out with it. It uses three candelabra base bulbs which isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but I realized that at least as of a few months ago when I restored an old floor lamp (from the same store, coincidentally) that the smallest flame style candelabra bulbs I could find in the Philips Ultra Definition line were 25W equivalent. Three of those would be 185*3 or 555 lumens which would be too much really. Currently I'm using a single 40W Ultra Definition (300 lumen) in the old falling apart fixture and honestly that might be too much for the little postage stamp of a yard. I actually was thinking about trying one of the "25W" ones with a base adapter after I repaint the one fixture (I'm actually working on two houses next to each other, one fixture needs to be repainted and I actually just bought the paint for it today; the other needs a replacement as that one is steel, rusted, and falling apart)

Now I know back in the day you could get 15W candelabra bulbs but if they'd made a good quality (in my mind, 2700K, >90 CRI, good name brand so it'll last at least a couple years) LED I would have already bought it for my floor lamp. I certainly don't want to use 45W worth of incandescents in something that could often be left on all night, because I have a vocal enough inner granola munching hippie I couldn't do that.

Can anyone recommend anything? Or should I take the L, put the fixture on Trash Nothing, and hold out for a smaller, single bulb fixture like I already have?

thanks!

 

[LEDphile]

Add a dimmer?

 

[TPA]

Without seeing the fixture, I'm not sure what you can fit into it or what you can get away with visually. Perhaps you can frost the glass on it to hide any ugly bulbs? I use these Philips bulbs with intermediate->candelabra socket adapters in my range hoods / under microwave lights and they're a huge improvement over the factory appliance bulbs: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B8TL8LVG
They do make 800 lumen bulbs with Candelabra sockets: https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/226917/SATCO-S21805.html

Depending on what the fixture looks like, my vote would be to hack the candelabra sockets out entirely, replace with one or two E26 sockets, then put in whatever bulb you choose. I personally use these on all of my front door lights: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C3TV6Q63 Mainly because they have built-in timers and sunrise/sunset built into them. I also use the RGB portion of them for holidays. Bright enough that I can run them on a reduced brightness for longevity.

 

[N8N]

Add a dimmer?

Good idea, especially a "toggler", but that would actually cost more than what I ended up doing.

Without seeing the fixture, I'm not sure what you can fit into it or what you can get away with visually. Perhaps you can frost the glass on it to hide any ugly bulbs? I use these Philips bulbs with intermediate->candelabra socket adapters in my range hoods / under microwave lights and they're a huge improvement over the factory appliance bulbs: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B8TL8LVG
They do make 800 lumen bulbs with Candelabra sockets: https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/226917/SATCO-S21805.html

Depending on what the fixture looks like, my vote would be to hack the candelabra sockets out entirely, replace with one or two E26 sockets, then put in whatever bulb you choose. I personally use these on all of my front door lights: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C3TV6Q63 Mainly because they have built-in timers and sunrise/sunset built into them. I also use the RGB portion of them for holidays. Bright enough that I can run them on a reduced brightness for longevity.

You're misunderstanding what I was trying to do, I think, I do not need MORE light I need LESS. this is going by the front door of a row house and the front yard is literally smaller than my office at work. There's also street lights on the other side of the street so I do not need to illuminate anything past the sidewalk.

In any case I looked at the space, returned the fixture (for store credit, but I know it won't go to waste) and did what I probably should have done originally - I ordered the cheapest little Kichler light fixture that was listed on eBay that a) was a wall mount, outdoor rated fixture and b) wasn't a "jelly jar". Said fixture uses a single E26 socket, just like the one I took down. Got a pair of 40W Ultra Def bulbs from Target, and swapped the fixture out yesterday afternoon. Job done.