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The house I'm living in has Harbor Breeze Caratuk ceiling fan fixtures installed in the bedrooms. The light bulb is a 60W equivalent LED bulb (6.5W). But the rooms are not lit brightly enough for me. The fixtures have a sticker that says "Max 6.5W" (yes: it does NOT say "65W"):

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From what I've read online the max wattage is 7W. Is that really accurate? Am I stuck with the dim bulbs or can I replace them with something brighter? Or am I going to have to add lamps or replace the fixtures to get more light in the room?

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  • I'm quite sure it doesn't say "max 6.5W". I would expect a "Max 60W" sticker. Do the bulbs have covers? Do the covers provide any ventilation?
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Mar 7, 2018 at 19:56
  • I know, I was surprised too. But here it is. imgur.com/a/e8SNY There is a glass dome that encloses the whole thing but even still I expected it to be a max 60W at a minimum.
    – Michael S.
    Commented Mar 7, 2018 at 20:34

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The porcelain socket itself and the UL-approved wiring can stand a ton of watts, that's not the issue.

That wattage limit is because the globe has no cooling. You can put a larger LED in there, but it's not going to last very long. Heat breaks/ages LEDs. At the higher wattage end, it could be dangerous to humans from scalding, though I don't think it will start a fire.

If you ran it without the globe or got a different globe, maybe something vented, you can run about anything, and safely to boot.

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Pretty low wattage for a lamp socket. I have never seen one listing that low. This would mean LED only. But, if this is the case, you could potentially choose a higher temperature range to get "brighter" light. If you have warm white, change to cool white. Try to find a bulb in the 5000k-6000k range.

I looked up the fan on https://www.lowes.com/pd/Harbor-Breeze-Caratuk-River-52-in-Bronze-Indoor-Downrod-Or-Close-Mount-Ceiling-Fan-with-Light-Kit/50354992 , and it states a max wattage of 60. So you could get a 100 watt equivalent LED and install that. Incandescent, CFL and LED are all different. At 60 watts, you are limited to a 60 watt incandescent, a 60 watt CFL is equivalent to a 225-276 watt incandescent, and a 60-watt LED is roughly equivalent to a 276-450 watt incandescent. Those are all estimates.

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  • I'm guessing this particular ceiling fan comes with different light kits. This one, m.lowes.com/pd/…, says max wattage of 6. I guess my next step is to either try a higher color temp range or see if I can replace the light kit itself.
    – Michael S.
    Commented Mar 7, 2018 at 18:38
  • If yours says that, then the options would be a different color temp, vent the housing somehow, or replace the light kit. Its only 1 bulb so it won't ever give truly satisfactory light output with the globe on.
    – Jeff Cates
    Commented Mar 8, 2018 at 17:13

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