The home we currently live in had a FLOS Fucsia 8 light fixture in the dining room when we moved in. The look of the fixture and the gentle chimes it makes when a breeze blows in from outside is quite appealing.
However we decided not to keep the light bulbs it came with, Philips Spotone NR50 25 Watt halogen bulbs. Replacing them with LEDs turned out to be considerably more difficult than we expected, this post is intended to help anyone else with one of these fixtures who is looking for options.
The base of the bulbs is one not commonly used in the United States: E14. A "candelabra" bulb is E12, a regular bulb is E26. In this nomenclature the E is for "Edison" and refers to the type of screw in base, and the number is millimeters width. The base of the bulbs used in the FLOS Fucsia line of fixtures are slightly larger than a candelabra bulb.
Though not common in the United States, E14 bulbs are quite common in Europe, which means that most of the E14 bulbs you find are designed for the European voltage of 220V and not the US voltage of 120V. Bulbs which are not dimmable will often work all the way down to 85V, but dimmable bulbs are calibrated for 220V and when powered at 120V they are fully dim or all the way off.
It took several tries to find dimmable bulbs which work at the US voltage in this fixture:
- we first bought non-dimmable bulbs from EBD lighting. These worked, but we missed being able to have a more intimate dinner with the lights turned low.
- we unintentionally bought dimmable bulbs for European voltage. These did not work at all at 120V, the light would not turn on.
- a bit later, we found the perfect bulbs: AAMSCO is a specialty vendor which makes an LED version of the E14 NR50 spotlight which is dimmable at 120 volts. It is about 4x as expensive as most LED bulbs, but a perfect fit for this fixture. We felt it was worth splurging. We bought them at lightbulbmarket.com, which offers a box of 10 bulbs at a small discount.
Update Aug 5, 2024: AAMSCO appears to no longer make these bulbs. I don't know of an alternate supplier.
This image shows the comparison between the original Philips Spotone halogen bulbs, the non-dimmable EBD Lighting bulbs, and the AAMSCO dimmable bulbs. The EBD bulbs have a notably bluer temperature and are considerably brighter than the other two. The AAMSCO LED bulbs roughly match the temperature and light output of the original halogens.
The climate change connection: energy savings from LED lights is the #33 solution for global warming on Project Drawdown's list.