What Size Bulb Fits an E27 Wall Sconce, A60 or G95?

What size bulb fits an E27 wall sconce is really only one question, because the thread is already settled and the glass is not. A plain A60 measures 2.4 in (60 mm) across and 4.3 in (110 mm) tall. A G95 globe measures 3.7 in (95 mm) across and 5.5 in (140 mm) end to end, so the globe on its own is longer than the entire A60 bulb.

That gap is where the money goes. Both lamps screw into the same holder, so nothing stops you at checkout, and the shade decides the outcome after the box is open and the lamp is no longer returnable. Houseland publishes this fixture as an E27 light, 8.7 in (22 cm) high with an 8.3 in projection, and publishes no shade aperture at all, which means the number that settles your order is one you take yourself with a rule.

What Size Bulb Fits an E27 Wall Sconce?

Any A-shape lamp fits, a G95 globe fits only where the shade mouth opens wider than 3.7 in (95 mm), and the E27 on the product page says nothing whatsoever about the glass above the cap.

GE Lighting's code guide sets out the system in one sentence: the letters give the shape and features such as reflector type, and the number gives the bulb's diameter at its widest point, measured in eighths of an inch. So an A19 is nineteen eighths, which Don's Notes writes out as 2 3/8 in.

The other system counts millimetres on the same glass, and it is the one stamped on most E27 stock. Don's Notes gives the metric A60 as 2.4 in (60 mm) in diameter and calls it the direct equivalent of the A19. An A19 and an A60 are one bulb wearing two names, 2.4 in (60 mm) wide either way. Once you know that, a listing that offers A60, G80, G95 and G125 is a listing of four widths, in order.

The letters worth recognising on a screw-base fixture:

• A, the household pear shape, omnidirectional and the shape everything is designed around.
• G, a globe, sold to be looked at rather than hidden.
• B and C, candle shapes, usually on the smaller E12 and E14 caps.
• T, tubular, the narrow one that slides into a fixture nothing round will enter.
• R, BR and PAR, reflectors with a mirrored bowl that aims the light forward.

How Big Is a G95 Globe Next to a Plain A60?

A G95 runs half again as wide as an A60, and its total length exceeds the A60's total height, which is the part people never picture. The figures below are not rounded catalogue guesses; each one is the dimension a seller publishes for a lamp on sale today.

The A60 line is Lightbulbs Direct's published size for the Philips CorePro LED GLS 13 W E27. The G95 line is Lampspares' 9 W Softline dimmable, a 1,055 lumen lamp at 2700K with a CRI of 80 and a rated life of 15,000 hours. The G125 line is Osram's Vintage 1906 filament globe, again from Lightbulbs Direct. Three sellers, three brands, one pattern: every step up the G range adds roughly 1 in of width and 1 in of length at the same time.

Length is the half of the arithmetic that gets forgotten. A globe that clears the rim by width can still hang out of the bottom of a small shade, and on a tilting head that protrusion is what brings the hot glass round towards the paint when you aim the beam down at a book. If the head is there so you can point it at a pillow, read our note on setting the height and angle of a bedside reading light before you size the lamp, because the two decisions are the same decision.

Does the E27 Marking Tell You Anything About Bulb Size?

No. E27 describes the cap, not the bulb, and the two numbers are measured on different parts of the same object.

The figure after the E is the base diameter in millimetres: 12 for the candelabra E12, 17 for the intermediate E17, 26 for E26, 27 for E27 and 39 for the mogul E39, as Don's Notes lists them. A G125 and an A60 carry an identical E27 cap, so the socket cannot refuse the one that will not fit the shade.

The neighbouring question, whether a North American E26 lamp belongs in an E27 holder, is a voltage question rather than a size one. LampHQ's side-by-side of the two standards shows the thread windows overlap so completely that either lamp screws into either holder; what differs is the grid each cap was standardised for. We answer that one separately, and it has no bearing on whether your globe clears the rim.

What Does Houseland Publish for This Fixture, and What Is Missing?

Five spec lines, and the one you need is not among them.

Houseland lists the socket as E27, the fixture at 8.7 in (22 cm) high with an 8.3 in projection, a wood round backplate, shade finishes in Gray, Green, Blue, Pink, White or Yellow, and a light temperature of Warm White 2700-3500K or Cool White 5500-7000K. That is the whole published record.

What the listing does not carry is a shade aperture, a maximum lamp diameter, a maximum wattage, a lumen figure or an IP rating. Measure the shade opening before you buy a G95. Anyone quoting you a typical opening for a shade of this class is quoting a different product. Three ways to find the real figure: read the label moulded into the lampholder or printed inside the backplate, check the pictogram on the carton, or open the parcel and measure the mouth before the fixture ever goes on the wall.

The 8.3 in projection is the one published number that does bear on a fat globe. That figure is measured with the head in one position, and the arm swings, so it is a starting point for wall clearance rather than a promise about a lamp we never specified.

From the shop

Bedside Wall Sconce, Adjustable Wood E27 Wall Light, 6 Colors

The socket is E27 and the fixture is 8.7 in (22 cm) high with an 8.3 in projection. Shade finishes are Gray, Green, Blue, Pink, White or Yellow on a wood round backplate.

View the adjustable bedside sconce — 6 shade colours & current price

How Do You Measure the Shade Opening Before You Order?

Take three numbers off the fixture with a steel rule, and the order becomes arithmetic instead of hope.

1. Kill the power at the switch and let any lamp that has been on go cold, then unscrew it.
2. Lay the rule flat across the mouth of the shade at its narrowest point, rim to rim. That figure is your hard ceiling on lamp diameter, and there is no negotiating with it.
3. Measure from the shoulder of the lampholder, where the cap seats, straight out to the rim. That is the length you have to play with; anything longer than it protrudes.
4. Decide how much protrusion you will accept. A globe meant to be seen can hang proud on purpose. A globe hanging proud by accident looks like a mistake, and on a tilting arm it shortens the distance between hot glass and the wall.
5. Leave air around the glass. Do not choose a lamp that touches the shade anywhere, whatever the two numbers say, because a lamp resting on a painted metal rim runs hotter than one hanging in air.
6. Now read your two figures against the table above and buy the widest lamp that clears both with room to spare.

Do the measuring before the fixture is up, not after. Working overhead on a stepladder with a rule in one hand is how people crack old plaster, and drilling and working on a plaster wall is a job you want to do once. If the fitting is not up yet and the wiring is still ahead of you, the sequence in our step by step for a hardwired wall sconce puts the mains work in the right order, and in most markets that part belongs to a qualified electrician rather than to you.

Globe vs Reflector vs A Shape: Which Should You Buy?

Buy the shape that matches the job, because these three families do genuinely different things with the same lumens, and the prettiest of them is the worst reading light of the three.

GE Lighting's guide describes the R and BR group as reflectors and bulged reflectors and PAR as the parabolic aluminized reflector, typically higher wattage and capable of a lot of light; the G group it describes plainly as commonly used for aesthetic purposes. That is the honest hierarchy. If you want to read in bed, a reflector in a head you can aim beats any 3.7 in (95 mm) globe, because the globe throws most of its output at the ceiling and the wall.

And sometimes the answer is that this is the wrong fixture. A room that needs a defined cone on a chair often wants a fitting built around a reflector lamp, and pretending a decorative globe does that job would cost you an evening and a return. Browse the wall lamps collection with the shape of the light in mind first and the finish second.

What I'd Do

Order the A60, and save the globe for a fitting that shows it off.

The A60 at 2.4 in (60 mm) is the width every shade on the market was drawn around, and it is the only shape you can buy without measuring first. If you want the fat opal look badly enough, measure the mouth, measure the depth, and step up one size at a time rather than jumping to a G125 that is 4.9 in (125 mm) across and 6.8 in (173 mm) long.

For this fixture specifically, Houseland gives you an E27 socket, a stated 8.7 in (22 cm) height and an 8.3 in projection, and no aperture, so treat the first bulb as a measurement exercise. Buy one A60, put it in, run the rule across the shade with the lamp out, and only then decide whether the globe you actually wanted has anywhere to live.