Home Use for Friendly MONSTER Light Bulbs

Medium Base Bulb Socket

Almost all of us have a plain medium base socket on a ceiling somewhere in the house...
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Perhaps in the basement, closet, or garage. Additional places you may find these sockets are over a workbench, kitchen table, or your washer and dryer...

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So what is the issue?  Not enough light!

1928 Design Bulb

​​If that is the case and you have a 150 watt bulb in the socket or worst you have two 150 watt bulbs in a "Y" socket in order to get more light. Then we need to evaluate possible help from friendly Monster sized bulbs...

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"Y" Socket

First thing if you have a 150 watt bulb, the proper energy saving bulb replacement is a 32 watt compact fluorescent. The 32 watts gives off 150 watts of light and only comes with the standard medium size socket.
Medium socket or a/k/a Edison socket.

If you have the "Y" socket adaptor with two 150 watt bulbs over a work space for maximum light, then consider changing the two 150 watt bulbs to two 32 watt bulbs. Make sure you have the room to fit the spread of the two 32 watt bulbs going in your "Y" socket. 

65 Watt Fluorescent

Another option is to remove the "Y" socket and use just one 65 watt bulb that has a Medium socket to go in your medium base socket on the ceiling. Don't order a Mogul size socket by mistake.

WARNING: Make sure the length of the 65 watt bulb or any other larger size bulb doesn't come down so low that you risk banging something into the large bulb when moving things about. Lifting a broom handling or moving boxes off shelves can easily bang into the large bulb and cause it to break. To know what to do if an energy saving bulb breaks visit our article:
Evacuate the House.

To help find who sells the 65 watt and larger bulbs, visit our article Something for Everyone.

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WARNING: The above photo provides info for a Table lamp. You must make sure that your table lamp can hold these bulbs with a wide distribution of weight so your lamp doesn't fall or get knocked over. Make sure you have room to spare within your lamp shade for the "Y" shape bulbs to fit. You DO NOT want the top tips of the bulbs touching or within one inch of your lamp shade. The above info in the photo can also be used to determine if this step will work in your ceiling socket. Also NOTE warning paragraph above.
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I need more light!

If you are using two 150 watt bulbs with a "Y" socket adaptor and still don't have enough light, then you can receive more light from one of the following options: 

Use a larger energy saving bulb when feasible:

The above bulbs are with a Medium socket that is standard in domestic houses. A larger Mogul size socket is also available for commercial use, but the length of the bulbs will be a little longer and they are also wider.

Now you can also increase light output and have an easier time finding these bulbs in a store by using Two (2) 40 watt bulbs and your "Y" shape socket. These two 40 watt bulbs will total 80 watts but give you 400 watts of light. They sound more efficient than the 105 watt bulb in the Chart above (80 watts giving you 400 watts of light, instead of 105 watts providing 400 watts of light), but be mindful of the Lumen output. Each 40 watt bulb gives off 2,400 Lumens of light, thus the total for two 40 watt bulbs in the "Y" socket is 4,800 Lumens. 200 Lumens less than that 105 watt bulb.

Also check and compare your needs to the measurements in the image above. While the article above tells about "Y" socket adaptors in ceiling sockets, the photo on the left shows info for use in a Table Lamp with a lamp shade. If this is your situation, make sure your have room to spare within your lamp shade for the "Y" shape bulbs to fit.

Need to buy a "Y" shape socket adaptor and the local Hardware store doesn't have one?
​Try your local Electrical Distributor.

What are my SAVINGS? (for example) If you are using 300 watts over your washer & dryer 5 times a week for 4 hours at a time and pay .14 per Kilowatt Hour, you will save the following every year after using two - 32 watt bulbs that total 64 watts instead of two 150 watt bulbs that total 300 watts:

TOTAL 1 year electric cost for two old 150 watt bulbs, totaling 300 watts: $ 44.00 *
TOTAL 1 year electric cost for new lights: $ 9.00 *

SAVINGS per year: $ 35.00 / Cost to buy two 2 new 32 watt bulbs: Approx. $ 16.00 
PAYBACK on Investment: About Half of one year! (6 months)

Learn to calculate your own electric bill. (*Above numbers rounded off)

Updated Blog Post - Article on EnergyHotwire.com to GoingTrueGreen.com Blog
Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
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