Adjustable bulbs are a bright idea

This is my 14th blog post for the Blaugust 2026 community blogging project. Join me all this month for more blogging. Q: How many home technology nerds does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: You’re asking the wrong question. Screwing in a light bulb is easy. Picking out a light bulb is hard. Back in the old days of incandescent bulbs it was pretty easy. You’d simply pick a wattage (60W, 75W, 100W) – which was a proxy for brightness – and then one of a couple of color choices, such as “soft white” or “bright white”. These days, however, in the modern LED world, choosing a light bulb is pretty complicated. LED bulb characteristics (it’s complicated) To start, I’m only considering standard household, non-decorative, E26 base, A19 shape bulbs here. Anything else is beyond the scope of this note. Let’s step through this. When selecting a new bulb, first, pick the brightness. With LED bulbs we do it in lumens, not watts. An incandescent bulb of 60 watts produces about 800 lumens. An LED…

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