9 Watt LED Bulb: Where It Is Enough and What It Costs

What a 9 watt LED bulb is for

A 9 watt LED bulb is the everyday lamp of an Indian home: the one in the bathroom, the passage, the balcony, over the pooja shelf and in the store room. It draws 9 watts from the supply and, at the efficiency typical of household LED lamps today, gives roughly 800 to 900 lumens, about what an old 60W filament bulb gave.

Ours is the VIYONA LED lamp 9W, code 1065, at ₹70 MRP, with a B22 bayonet cap and ten to a box. It is the cheapest lamp in our range by a wide margin, and the one a flat needs in the largest numbers. This page is about where a 9W is the right choice, where it is not, what it costs to run at the hours these rooms are really used, and the mistakes people make with it.

If you are replacing a lamp that hangs in a main room, read on before you buy: a 9W is often too little for a bedroom or living room on its own, and the right answer there is a bigger lamp or a second light.

How bright is a 9W LED, and what does it replace?

Brightness is measured in lumens, not watts. Household LED lamps commonly give about 90 to 100 lm/W, so a 9W lamp lands at roughly 810 to 900 lumens. That is the light class of three older lamps:

• 60W filament bulb, about 800 lumens
• 13W to 15W CFL, the spiral lamps of the 2000s
• A 9W LED of another model, which may be brighter or dimmer

Our catalogue lists the 1065 by watts and MRP and does not print a lumen figure, so the lumens on the carton are the number to trust. Two 9W lamps from different makers can differ by a hundred lumens or more; the lumens vs watts guide shows how to read the carton and compare them.

Where a 9W is enough

A 9W lamp is the right size for small rooms and for places where you need light to see by rather than to work by:

• Bathroom and toilet: typically 5 × 7 ft or 6 × 8 ft
• Passage and lobby: one lamp every 8 to 10 ft of length
• Balcony: enough to see the plants and the clothes line
• Pooja shelf or mandir: see our pooja room lighting guide
• Store, loft, utility: short visits, light switched off after
• Staircase landing in a bungalow or row house

Where a 9W lamp is enough in a typical flat

Drawn by us, not to scale. Blue: a 9W is enough. Grey: the main rooms need a 12W or larger lamp, a tube fitting, or two lights.

Where a 9W is not enough

The light from one lamp is spread over the whole floor of a room. Lighting practice reckons on roughly 40 to 50% of a lamp’s lumens reaching the floor in an ordinary room (a utilisation of about 0.4 to 0.5), often less in a small one, the rest lost to walls, ceiling, the fitting and ageing. Worked for a 9W lamp of about 850 lumens:

• 6 × 8 ft bathroom: about 4.5 m², roughly 75 to 95 lux, enough
• 10 × 10 ft bedroom: about 9.3 m², roughly 35 to 45 lux, dim as the only light
• 12 × 14 ft living room: about 15.6 m², roughly 20 to 25 lux, too dark

So a 9W makes a fine bedside or second light in a bedroom, but a poor main light. For the main light, see our 12 watt LED bulb guide, which works the same sum for a 10 × 12 ft bedroom, or use a tube fitting along one wall. Our how many lights in a room guide has the full method.

Units per month at the hours these rooms are used

Units are watts × hours ÷ 1,000. A 9W lamp is mostly used in rooms with short or long but steady hours, so here is the bill at four realistic patterns, for 30 days:

A 9W in the passage on 6 hours a day uses 1.62 units a month against 10.8 units for the 60W bulb it replaced: a saving of about 9 units a month per lamp. Across six lamp points on similar hours, that is more than 50 units a month. Our electricity bill guide shows how to price those units.

Price: code 1065 and what a flat’s worth costs

Our 9W LED lamp is code 1065 at ₹70 MRP, packed 10 per box. Because the small rooms of a flat all take the same lamp, people usually buy them by the box: ten lamps come to ₹700 at MRP, enough for the bathrooms, passage, balcony, pooja and store of a 2BHK with spares.

Look at the step to the next size. Our 12W (1066) is ₹145, more than double the 9W for 3 extra watts. That makes the 9W the clear choice wherever it is bright enough, and it is why the 12W page compares one 12W with two 9W lamps. The full range, from the 0.5W night lamp to the 50W Sumo, is on our LED bulb range page.

Fitting it: cap, holder and switch

The 1065 has a B22 bayonet cap: push it into the holder against the springs and turn until the pins lock. It fits the batten, angle and pendant holders found in most Indian homes. If your holder is a screw type (E27), it will not fit; our B22 vs E27 guide shows how to tell.

Its round globe is small enough for most bathroom and balcony shades. Before you close a glass shade over it, check there is air around the lamp: LED drivers dislike being shut in a hot box. In a bathroom, keep the fitting clear of shower spray.

If the holder is old, look at it before fitting a new lamp. A cracked ring, a burnt mark at the cap or a loose terminal will shorten any lamp’s life. Our batten holder guide covers replacements, from ₹26 for the polycarbonate batten holder (202).

Mistakes people make with a 9W

• Main light in a big room: one 9W in a living room gives about a third of the light it needs. Use a larger lamp or a tube fitting.
• On an ordinary dimmer: most household LED lamps are not dimmable, and a dimmer can make them flicker or hum. Our dimmer switch guide explains why.
• Faint glow when off: usually an illuminated switch or a neutral-switched circuit; see LED glowing when switched off.
• Buying by watts alone: read the lumens on the carton.
• Wrong colour for the room: cool white suits a bathroom and store; warm white a bedside. See warm white vs cool white.

A 9W at the gate, porch or balcony

Outside points are where a 9W often burns longest: a gate light or a staircase landing left on from dusk to dawn runs about 12 hours a night, which is 3.24 units a month for a 9W against 21.6 units for the 60W bulb that used to hang there. Over a year, one gate lamp saves more than 200 units.

A lamp holder is an indoor part, though. A 9W in a batten holder is fine under a covered porch or balcony where rain does not reach it. Where the light is open to rain or wind-blown spray, use a sealed fitting with a printed IP rating instead of an open lamp. Our catalogue does not print one for our 12W PVC bulkhead (1046) at ₹330, so ask us before fitting it in the open; our bulkhead light guide explains where a bulkhead fits. Put outdoor lights on a circuit protected by a 30 mA RCCB. The IP rating guide explains the numbers to look for on any outdoor light.

For the layout of lights around a house, from the gate to the compound wall, see our outdoor lights for home guide and the balcony electrical points guide.

9W LED vs a 0.5W night lamp or a tube

Two other lights compete with the 9W for the same small rooms. For light left on all night in a bedroom or passage, our 0.5W night lamp (1061) at ₹40 uses about 0.15 units a month on 10 hours a night, a fraction of a 9W, and gives just enough light to find the door. Our night lamp guide covers that choice.

For a long kitchen counter or a passage wall, a 6W tube fitting (1051) at ₹160 spreads light along its length where a bulb throws it in a circle. Our LED bulb vs tube light guide compares the two on units and spread, and our tube light range lists the fittings.

Where we supply

Everything on this page is made at our works in Marol, Andheri East and sold through dealers and distributors across Maharashtra and in many other states. See where we supply in Maharashtra and how we supply other states in India. Orders placed through our office are delivered all over India, in full boxes only. Your local electrical shop can order the 9W by the box from our dealers, along with switches and holders. For a quotation, or the name of a dealer near you, contact our office.