How to Lumenate (UK Edition)
When my partner and I decided to move in together, I promised I would make our home bright and lumenated and optimized in ways that matter. So early on I bought three lamps (and fairy lights for the bathroom) and bought the brightest possible lightbulbs in lumens I could get on Amazon and made a lot of mistakes because it turns out in the UK there are like 4 kinds of standard lightbulbs including like mini ones with mini little threads that made me feel like I had bought a toy and tried to install it into a real life electronic device.
And I asked him if it was good, and he said it was.
And then four months later, I thought, "but couldn't it be a lot brighter in here?" and he said "yes" and I realized I had not held to my promise at all, so I doubled the number of lamps in the living room, and I asked him if it was good, and he said it was.
And then two months after that, I thought "but couldn't it be a lot brighter in here?" and he said "yes" and I realized I had not held to my promise at all and I decided to Actually Try and apply as much Dakka as it took and follow the instructions here but they weren't that helpful because it's the wrong Amazon, so I found equivalents and made mistakes and did a bunch of arts and crafts and this is what I now have in my apartment. It's likely nowhere near ideal, and I would be thrilled to get to add better options.
Important Information:
Lightbulb thread types: check the specs when you buy
E27/E26: which is what I consider "normal" and is what you'd expect if you bought a standard lightbulb in the US. Apparently interchangeable?
Googled it: E26 vs E27, what's the difference? E26 stands for 26 mm and the E27 for 27 mm in diameter. These two standards are interchangeable, meaning a US E26 will fit in a European E27 base, and E27 will fit in a E26 base. The only difference is the voltage (for light bulbs).
B22: No, don't buy these for anything I suggest below, they have two stick out pieces on either side of the base and no thread, some lights in my apartment take these but nothing I suggest below.
E14: weirdly small cylinder as a base, with threading
General information:
Lumens are brightness, the more the better for this purpose. I aimed for 2000 lumens with each light and rarely found it
Lighting color temperature is measured in Kelvin, the higher the number the cooler and more like daylight. I aimed for as high as I could get for the bright lights, usually got 5000K or 4000K, and got 2700 for soft light, but didn't put that much thought into it. The 2700 are too yellow for my preference if I was being picky. Chart here.
I bought the dimmer as recommended in the original article but most lightbulbs that fit my purposes on Amazon UK were nondimmable so I don't recommend one here
Products
[x2] Lamp with two lightbulb holders: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017XQI99W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The key thing here is that you need different kinds of lightbulbs for the two sockets. I used the two sockets to have cool light in the top one and warm light in the bottom one.
The top socket uses E27 threading, the bottom one uses E14 threading
[x2] Lamp with one lightbulb holder: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00R3LQW42/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Uses E27 threading
A lamp that came with the apartment that takes E27 lightbulbs
This string of sockets: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08SVWXJN2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I alternated warm lightbulbs and cool lightbulbs
Note: it's meant for outdoors, looks a little ridiculous inside, especially because it's so long I have it looped around my command hooks which gives a funny effect I've grown to like, but it's not top notch aesthetics
Caveat emptor: it takes E27 threaded lightbulbs (and comes with its own, which are dimmable but not very bright) but it turns out that the Litake brand which I bought first doesn't quite reach long enough into the socket to get the threads to meet, and so I had to return them to get the LOHAS brand.
My cool lights:
Umi brand, 4000K (cool white), 1521 lumens, which is the best I could find, currently unavailable, used for lamps #1-3 above: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07W8QNPPM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Litake, 5000K (Daylight), 1600 Lumens, E26 threading, I returned these because they didn't work with the string of sockets in #4 but I believe would work just fine for the lamps in #1-3 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0832SLQG9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
LOHAS, 6000K (Overcast day), 1600 Lumens, E27 threading, non-dimmable, these worked with the socket in #4: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FTJJBSP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Annoyingly, these don't tell you what color they are on the box so if you get these with the LOHAS warm lights you'll have to mark them or remember
My warm lights:
TopLeder Brand, only 471 lumens, 2700K warm white color, E14 threading, which you need for the second socket for lamp #1 above, nondimmable: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ZYFLFB5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Litake, 2700k, 1600 lumens, E26 threading, I returned these because they didn't work with the string of sockets in #4 but I believe would work just fine for lamp #2 above, nondimmable https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07T9YD7F2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
LOHAS, 2700K (warm white), 1600 Lumens, E27 threading, non-dimmable, these worked with the socket in #4: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FTJJBSP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Annoyingly, these don't tell you what color they are on the box so if you get these with the LOHAS cool lights you'll have to mark them or remember
[x3] (this one is especially non optimized): Lanterns to soften the light in the sockets: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09BQWPF2L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
These are probably not the best ones I could have gotten, to fully open them they need to have the metal / plastic structure that comes with them in there, propping it all up, but that makes it impossible (as far as I could figure, though I didn't try that hard) to also have the lightbulb in from the socket, so mine are all funny saucer shapes because there's no internal structure
I recommend 2 because the small ones are too small to get around the lightbulb and the big ones fall down. I used one by using tape and scissors and tinkering, but probably easier to just get three to have enough of the sizes that work. I alternated the two sizes that worked naturally so that all my warm lights have the small ones and the cool lights have the big ones, for my own aesthetic preferences.
Command Hooks: You need medium and large ones to set up the sockets, both work, I wouldn't go for anything smaller. I needed 11 total for my setup, but I'm using 13/16th the length of the socket.
I also have a bunch of these fairy lights in my apartment, I love them for ambiance and they are pretty bright, but not for delumenation purposes: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001EA8R8M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Warning: 16m is very very long! There are 8m and 16m options, I have both and I can think of places I'd put the 16m but it is really quite long.
Be sure to get the ones with the switch so you don't have to unplug them to turn them off
Outcome
Here's what it looks like (understanding that taking pictures of light is...uh). You can see the wonkiness of the lanterns and the vast differences in colors. Having all cool lights would be definitely overwhelming. Having two lamps next to each other is definitely not very aesthetic (and that’s repeated elsewhere in the room) but it’s worth it for now.
With all the lights on, it’s quite bright and cheery! The socket lights were so bright that as I hang out here in the evening, I wanted them off. I like getting to have just the soft lights in the room (in the lamps + fairy lights, not sockets since I can only turn on that whole thing at once) for evening ambiance and adjust as necessary.
