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I need to replace a faulty lightbulb but it's not one I've come across before. It's being used in a light fixture in my washroom above the vanity. Can anyone here identify it? I'm hoping I can order one from Amazon or my local Home Depot.

(Loonie for scale)

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    While LEDs do go faulty, its much less likely than an old hot lamp. Are you positive this lamp is faulty and not the fitting? Separately, I find a ruler in the photo is better for sizing... I have no idea how big foreign coins are.
    – Criggie
    Jan 25, 2021 at 22:53
  • I agree LED bulbs are much more reliable than other. We have had one LED lightbulb fail at home though so it is possible. Faulure in regular bayonet philips 7.5W with 6 yellow led strips bulb in maybe 1 year. Other LED bulbs lasting much longer.
    – gaoithe
    Jan 26, 2021 at 16:12

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This is a G9 halogen bulb:

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Note G9 is the name of the socket and form factor, but it says nothing about wattage. Voltage should be mains.

Yours is a G9 COB LED:

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Since the original bulb uses LEDs, the fixture may not be designed to handle the heat of halogen, so it's better to replace it with a G9 LED bulb. As for wattage, check the fixture, but really you should be able to use a bit more watts like 5W instead of 2W if you want more light, it shouldn't melt... If you put a 20W halogen lamp in a 2W all-plastic LED-only fixture it will probably melt.

Get a flicker-free bulb if you can, they're easier on the eyes. If you use a dimmer, make sure it says "dimmable". Note the LED bulbs don't all have the standard length, so you might want to measure the space inside the fixture to make sure it fits. For example this one is bigger, so you'd have to check.

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    Thanks for this! I had no idea LEDs were available for this kind of fixture. We currently have halogen bulbs and they get remarkably hot.
    – Organic Marble
    Jan 25, 2021 at 15:11
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    If you do replace it with halogen, do not touch the glass with your fingers when installing it - use a piece of clean cloth or a paper towel. Finger oil deposited on the glass is one of the main reasons for these burning out. (Don't think that's an issue with the LED versions.)
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Jan 25, 2021 at 18:38
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    That one is also a "corn cob" light, which throws light in every direction, utterly defeating the most useful aspect of LED design, which is that their light is directional and not wasted throwing light in a useless direction. (99% of light applications actually want a wedge or cone, not a sphere. We only learned to live with spheres because every bulb until now throws spherical light. Never was a feature, always a bug.)
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Jan 25, 2021 at 23:40
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    @OrganicMarble, Re, "halogen bulbs...get remarkably hot." Always have, always will. We used to call them quartz halogen bulbs back when the technology was new because the envelope is made of pure, fused silica. It has to be made that way because if it was made of glass, it would melt. They have to run that hot, because the high temperature, along with the halogen filling, is part of the chemistry that allows them to last longer than ordinary incandescent bulbs of equal wattage.
    – Solomon Slow
    Jan 26, 2021 at 3:46
  • @Harper-ReinstateMonica I’m not convinced by that 99% - all my pendants hanging down from the middle of my rooms do still want a hemi-spherical bulb...
    – Tim
    Jan 26, 2021 at 15:26
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It's a "quartz halogen" lamp. You will need the voltage and wattage off of it or the fixture, and that is what's called a "G9 base", which is important to pay attention to because there are several different bases in this style of lamp and that has to match.

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    looks more like a LED.
    – Jasen
    Jan 25, 2021 at 8:18
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    @Jasen I agree. I'm pretty sure that's an LED with a G9 base. I haven't used my G9 lamps for years because they got too hot. But since it looks like LEDs now exist for G9 bases, I'm eager to buy a few bulbs and use those lamps again.
    – RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket
    Jan 25, 2021 at 11:53

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