Bright LED bulbs for enclosed fixtures
Most bright LED bulbs explicitly warn that they are not for use in fully enclosed fixtures. This leaves people stuck with dimmer bulbs that leave basements feeling too dark, and even bulbs advertised online for enclosed use often arrive with warnings printed directly on them.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Checking fixture ratings to use higher wattage equivalent LED bulbsDid this help you?
- 2Searching specifically for enclosed-rated bulbsDid this help you?
- 3Replacing the entire ceiling fixture instead of just swapping the bulbsDid this help you?
- 4Finding specific brands that no longer print the warning on their bulbsDid this help you?
- 5Ignoring the enclosed fixture warning because the wattage is lowDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I have been trying to find new LED bulbs for them but all the ones I've been getting note that they are not for use in fully enclosed fixtures.”source ↗
“I've even ordered some AmazonBasics ones that the listing said they were specifically for enclosed fixtures, but when they arrived it was printed on the bulb itself that they were not for enclosed fixtures.”source ↗
“the bulbs I get are just never quite bright enough for the space, maybe because of the enclosures they’re in.”source ↗
“the issue is that the basement still feels too dim. I wonder if I can do 100w enclosed. I think the ones I have are 80?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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