One feature I find lacking in all of these electronic switch lamps, is that there’s no way to control them by a wall switch.
I don’t know how common they are, but I’ve experienced them in a number of homes and apartment buildings where I’ve lived – a wall switch that doesn’t control a light fixture, but instead controls power to a wall outlet. I guess all of these desk lamps are intended for direct control. Some actually are wifi enabled and you can use an app on your phone, which seems a bit absurd for typical use.
For anyone who has a wall outlet control switch and would prefer it to control a light at bedside, and doesn’t want a floor lamp or large table lamp, a small desk-type lamp can be a nice alternative. I’d been using a small halogen “tensor” lamp (that means 3 or more pivot points), but wanting to get away from high consumption high heat halogen bulbs, I’d started looking for replacements. And then I learned that there have been some LED substitute bulbs for halogen bulbs.
One common type is called “G4”. It’s a bulb with 2 thick straight wires that will fit into 2 holes in the bulb mounting. Another one is “G9”, which instead of stiff straight wire prongs, uses looped wires.
And yes, there are LED equivalents:
On Amazon, these are often sold in 5 packs at a minimum, ranging from $10 to $15.
On AliExpress, you will find a ton of these but geared for 220V. The search engine for the site is lousy… as I’d put both 120V and AC120V criteria, but would still get 220V. You can’t use a minus sign to exclude 220V. But if you’re persistent in scrolling and viewing, you can eventually find 110v/120v.
I had ordered 2 styles of the G9 – one frosted (milky) and one clear. The clear version wasn’t as diffused as I wanted and I detected a little bit of PWM. The milky one worked out well – nice diffusion and no PWM (even video mode on phone camera didn’t pick up anything). After 2 years, the bulb quit. I couldn’t figure out what killed it. There’s 14 LED’s on it. But, it was super cheap. I’d bought a mixed pack of both milky and clear for about $6 (4 bulbs total). Similar to this: LINK.
Assuming the current LED I have installed might end up failing like the last one after a couple of years, I thought it would be a good idea to have a backup. I’d rather buy 2 for $2.25 rather than get 5 for $10 (Amazon listings).
