LED Pin Light Bulb

It's all about the pins and how they lock in. A GU10 has two thick pins with little 'feet' that you push in and twist to lock. A GU5.3 has two straight, skinny pins you just push in. A G4 has even thinner pins that are closer together. They are not interchangeable at all. Pull your old bulb out and look at the base — that's the only way to be sure you're ordering the right replacement.

No, you have to choose one that's specifically sold as dimmable. If the product title or description doesn't say 'dimmable', it isn't. Trying to dim a non-dimmable LED bulb with a wall dimmer will just make it flicker, buzz, or fail completely.

Look for 2700K or 3000K. Halogen bulbs give off a very warm, yellowish light, which on the light bulb Kelvin scale is around 2700K. If you want that same cozy feel, 2700K is your target. For a slightly cleaner, less yellow warm white, 3000K is a great choice. 4000K and up will look much cooler and more neutral by comparison.

It comes down to efficiency. A halogen bulb wastes about 90% of its energy as heat. An LED converts almost all its energy directly into light. That's why we talk about lumens now instead of watts. A 50W halogen and one of our 4.8W LED bulbs both produce around 475-480 lumens. The LED just does it without generating all that waste heat.

Yes, most of our pin-base bulbs are designed for exactly these kinds of applications. LEDs run much cooler than halogens, but they still produce some heat that needs to dissipate to ensure a long life. As long as the fixture isn't 100% airtight and has a little room for air to move, you'll be fine. It's a massive improvement over the fire-hazard heat from the old halogens.

Three things: voltage, base, and shape. MR16 bulbs are almost always low voltage (12V) and use a bi-pin base like a GU5.3. PAR16 bulbs are typically line voltage (120V) and use a standard E26 screw-in base. The shape is also different, which affects the beam. You can't swap one for the other; you have to match what your fixture requires.

Yes, and don't skip this. To run 12V LED bulbs, you need a 12V DC constant voltage power supply, also called an LED driver. You cannot connect them directly to a 120V wall outlet. And as I mentioned, the old transformer from your halogen setup probably won't work either. Using the right power source is the most important part of the installation. We have a whole range of UL-listed power supplies for this.

In the US, the 'standard' light bulb base for lamps and ceiling fixtures is the E26 screw base. But these pin-style bulbs are for specialty lighting — track lights, pendants, desk lamps, RVs — where fixtures are compact. Each base (G4, G8, GU5.3, etc.) is a different standard for a different application. You have to match your old bulb exactly. 

It's the type of electrical current. AC (Alternating Current) is often found in older landscape lighting systems that use magnetic transformers. DC (Direct Current) is the standard for modern LED systems. Some of our bulbs are built to handle both, with a wide input range like '10-18V AC / 10-30V DC', to make retrofits easy. But if a bulb is marked '12V DC only', it must be powered by a DC driver. If you're looking for bulbs for general home use, you might be interested in our LED filament bulbs instead.