SpecsyHome and maintenance
Remember which light bulb goes where
A bulb is not just a bulb. Fitting, brightness, colour temperature and dimmable or not, and getting one of the four wrong is visible from the doorway.
- Fitting
- GU10
- Power
- 5 W, 470 lm
- Colour
- 2700K warm white
- Dimmable
- Yes
- Beam angle
- 36 degrees
The mismatched bulb problem
One bulb in a row of five goes. You buy a replacement, screw it in, and now that corner of the room is faintly blue while everything else is warm.
It fits, it works, and it looks wrong for the next three years because replacing four working bulbs feels ridiculous.
The fix is to record the colour temperature and the fitting the first time you buy them, per room, not per bulb.
The five values that decide whether it matches
- Fitting, E27, E14, GU10, G9 and so on, the only one that decides whether it physically goes in
- Colour temperature in kelvin, the one that decides whether the room looks right
- Brightness in lumens, which is the real measure, not watts
- Dimmable or not, because a non-dimmable bulb on a dimmer flickers and dies early
- Beam angle for spots, which changes how the light falls
Colour temperature, in plain terms
| Kelvin | Looks like | Usually used in |
|---|---|---|
| 2700K | Warm, yellowish, like an old bulb | Living rooms, bedrooms |
| 3000K | Warm but cleaner | Kitchens, hallways |
| 4000K | Neutral white | Bathrooms, work surfaces |
| 5000K and up | Cold, slightly blue | Garages, utility rooms |
One card per room, not per bulb
Rooms are usually lit with a single specification, so the useful unit is the room. Kitchen spots, bedroom lamps, hallway ceiling.
When one goes, you open the room and buy the exact same thing. If you ever redo the room, you edit one card instead of hunting through a list of twenty bulbs.
Questions people ask
Can I photograph the old bulb instead?
Yes, and it helps, but the printing on a used bulb is often burned off. The card is the reliable copy.
Does Specsy handle smart bulbs?
Store them the same way, plus the ecosystem they are paired with, since a replacement has to speak the same protocol.
Is wattage still worth recording?
Record lumens first and watts second. Watts only tell you consumption on LED bulbs, brightness is lumens.