Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

In general, a good rule of thumb for CFL light bulbs is to use a bulb that is one-fourth of the wattage as the standard bulb you are replacing. Since I know math is not the most fun pastime in the world, you can use the list I have below for the common ones.

25 watt standard 7 watt CFL 40 watt standard 9-11 watt CFL 60 watt standard 13-15 watt CFL 75 watt standard 18 watt CFL 100 watt standard 23-26 watt CFL 150 watt standard 32-35 watt CFL

Keep this in mind; the maximum wattage allowed by your fixture is for any type of bulb, so if you can only use a 40 watt bulb in your lamp, that means you can use and CFL up to that wattage, meaning you could now get the light output of a 150 watt bulb in that lamp, since a CFL replacement is less than 40 watts. Try our Energy Savings Calculator to determine your savings with switching to Compact Fluorescents.