Ikea Lamp - Maximum Power Of Light Bulb?

[magomago]

Hi All,

I bought an ikea lamp to add more light to my room and pizzazz it up a little bit.

I ended up buying the ALANG lamp because it was on sale
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00190830/

However the bulb that came with it is garbage and only has a 'life style function'...I think it puts out maybe 400 lumens.

There is some print on the area where the bulb screws in taht says something like "To mitigate the risk of fire, utilize maximum 100W type A light bulbs"

Does this mean I can plug in a 100W CFL that puts out a LOT of lumens, or is that saying "Don't use any higher than a CFL bulb that is equivalent to a 100W bulb"

To sum it up:

"Says 100W - is it talking about the actual power draw, or the max power in 'incadescent light blub lingo'"

I want to assume the former, but I'd also rather not risk a fire, so I want to make sure I'm okay.

On a side note I'm cruising amazon and its somewhat hard to find anything higher than 65W CFL bulb (~250W equivalent) putting out around 3500ish lumens. Are there any other places i should be looking for? I want a 2700k bulb...Ideally, if its 100W maximum, I want to throw in a 100W CFL that will give me a googleplex lumens, but I get this feeling I'm going to melt something lol (I'm not an EE or technician by trade)


edit:

isn't someone here a light bulb guru that works in the industry? Was it Jeff7? I don't recall...

 

[LTC8K6]

Actual power draw.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

100 watts is 100 watts is 100 watts. Did I mention it's 100 watts?

 

[Viper GTS]

The difficulty you will find is that high output CFL's are huge. They won't physically fit in a lot of lamps, and that one doesn't look promising based on its shape.

Here's an 85W, one of the biggest I've seen on a 'normal' household base:

http://www.amazon.com/Full-Spectrum-...dp/B0019HZQPM/

Not 2700k though...

Viper GTS

 

[edro]

Wattage limits on lamps are almost always due to temperature limits of materials near the bulb or socket.
Wire and terminal current might come in to play, but it is very unlikely.

Yes, you can use a 100W CFL as long as it fits. CFLs are much cooler running than an incandescent.

 

[0roo0roo]

yea 100 watts is power rating. cfl and led are watt equivalent rating unless you read their draw power. so unless you go incandescent, you can put in a blinding amount of light and be fine, its thermal/electrical limit, nothing else.

also you do not want a point source of light that bright anyways, it is bad lighting for any room, its best to mix ambient/spot/task/accent/fill lights in a room to make it comfortable for the eyes. you don't want that harsh glare or shadowing, so many smaller lilghts is the way to go by default.