Choosing the Right Light Bulb for your Mica Lamp Shade
Meghan Fletcher, Manager of The Craftsman Shop
The 2 types of bulbs that can be used in the new Craftsman style lamps, designed by Philip Meyer of Ragsdale Home Furnishings, with mica shades are: INCANDESCENT BULBS and LED BULBS.
INCANDESCENT BULBS: The “heat rise test” specification is that the bulbs should not cause the mica shade panels to heat up to more than 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Always use this test when you are judging if your mica lamp shade can handle the bulbs you have placed in the lamp. How can you tell what 150 degrees is? Try placing your hand on the lamp shade, and if you can’t leave your hand there for more than a few seconds before drawing it away in pain, the bulbs are too hot and you should try a cooler bulb. 150 degrees is below boiling temp, and can be thought of as placing your hand on the hood of your car on a hot sunny day. Not a good idea, but it won’t burn you if you don’t leave it there long.
INCANDESCENT BULBS: These bulbs are losing popularity because of LED’s long life and energy savings. Incandescent bulbs are very hot and use more electricity. Incandescent bulbs use a “Brightness Equivalent Scale” which goes from 25 to 100 watts.
LED bulbs use a Lumens scale to give you an idea of how bright the bulb will be. The dimmest LED will be about 400 Lumens while the brightest will run up to 1,600 lumens. When you purchase LED bulbs look for the Warm White or 2200K – 3000K wavelength. On the color spectrum this bulb gives a yellowish light which is comparable to incandescent light. The daylight color LED bulbs are too bluish, and don’t really look good in with mica lamp shades.
LED BULBS: LED bulbs up to 100 watts work fine in all of the mica shade lamps, and cause no overheating. Again look for bulbs in the Warm White color spectrum of 2200K – 3000K.
Never use HALIDE, HALOGEN, LOW PRESSURE SODIUM, or MERCURY VAPOR bulbs with the mica lamp shades from Rustic Artistry. These bulbs are not rated to fit into normal household lamp sockets, and using them will cause the lamp socket and lamp shade to become overheated, and may cause a fire.
Click here to see all available lamps by Phillip Meyer of Ragsdale Home Furnishings.
Click here for the Amazon link to the light bulbs the artist recommends being used with his lamps.