What Type of Light Bulb Is Needed?

[wsamon]

I need to change the bulb in my pool light. However, I'm having trouble determining what one to purchase. First off, do I really need a $200-$400+ "pool light" bulb? Or could I use one of the substantially cheaper wet-rated LED flood / recessed lights? The fixture seems to have the standard edison style, so any normal bulb would fit, and LEDs are wet-rated and should run cool enough to survive in the enclosure I think. Additionally, how can I tell if I have a 12v or 120v socket? The fixture is so old that all the labeling has worn off, and the bulb exploded in my hands while I was messing with it, so there's nothing readable there. Is there anything else I need to be aware of?

 

[borjis]

typically if its 12 volt you would see somewhere a transformer box that converts it from 120v, do you have such a transformer?

I was thinking about replacing my light with an LED and there seems to be several on amazon that are 12 and 120 volt but you
need to know for sure which one you have first.

 

[wsamon]

I'm new to this, and homeownership in general. I honestly don't know what a transformer looks like. There is a metal box the wires run through shortly after leaving the circuit breaker. I assume this may be one, but I don't know how to confirm.

 

[n240sxguy]

Look on the base of the lamp you took out. It should have voltage and wattage stamped on it.


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[wsamon]

Look on the base of the lamp you took out. It should have voltage and wattage stamped on it.

There is nothing stamped on the metal itself. That information was on stickers that have become unreadable due to moisture. I could make out the words watts and model but nothing else, so they are of no use.

If I were to put in a generic household lightbulb (out of the water of course), what would happen if the voltage is wrong? My thinking is that if it's a 120v line and I put in a generic household bulb it will either go out quickly or at worst explode. If it's 12v then the bulb should work pretty normally. That could tell me the voltage so I can go get the right kind of bulb. Does this test make sense? Is there any damage that could be caused to something other than the bulb?

 

[n240sxguy]

As long as you keep it away from the water, use a tester to verify the voltage. If there's not some little plastic or metal box that doesn't look like it goes to anything, I'm guessing it's 120v. If you test it with a regular 120v bulb, it should light up normally at 120v and may not light up at all on 12v. It shouldn't hurt the bulb, but it may mess up the transformer/power supply if you have one. I doubt it would hurt anything, but still better to use a meter so it isn't actually drawing current.


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[wsamon]

As long as you keep it away from the water, use a tester to verify the voltage. If there's not some little plastic or metal box that doesn't look like it goes to anything, I'm guessing it's 120v. If you test it with a regular 120v bulb, it should light up normally at 120v and may not light up at all on 12v. It shouldn't hurt the bulb, but it may mess up the transformer/power supply if you have one. I doubt it would hurt anything, but still better to use a meter so it isn't actually drawing current.

Well that was a head-slapper! I totally forgot I even had a voltmeter! I don't think I've used it since wiring up my car stereo about 8 years ago.

So I have a 12 volt current. Does that mean that I can use almost any LED bulb? Or am I still stuck with the ones that cost a couple hundred dollars?

 

[n240sxguy]

I don't see why you couldn't use any led bulb. Not sure what the difference is between them and the pool bulbs besides price. I assume the pool ones are oriented like a floodlight or spotlight so that style is what I would use.


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[svenpup]

A year ago I swapped out my 300watt incandescent Edison bulb for a BulbWizards PoolBright 202 LED Color Changing Replacement Bulb (see my review here).

At the time it was about half the price of the competitor's bulb, so I figured it was worth a try. I haven't seen anyone else here with this bulb, but I love mine.