LED Light Bulb Types

There are a wide variety of different bases available on LED lights used in New Zealand.  LED light bulbs are often referred to by the type of base or the type of bulb to distinguish one from another.  There appears to be very little consistency as whether to use the bulb style or the base style to describe the bulb.

B22 Base LED Light

What we all know as a standard light bulb in New Zealand uses a B22 bayonet base.  The 22 is the diameter in millimetres and the B stands for bayonet.  This base has two short pins that lock the bulb in place when it is pushed in and turned.  There are usually two contacts on the bottom that touch the electrical point in the socket.

E27 Base LED Light

The screw type base is widely used in America and very common in large recessed down lights.  This base is known as an E27, 27mm in diameter and the E stands for Edison screw.  These light bulbs are screwed into the fitting.  E27 bulbs have only one contact on the base with the screw fitting acting as the second electrical contact point.

GU10 Base LED Light

The GU10 base is mostly used on mains voltage halogen bulbs.  The GU 10 base consists of two contacts protruding from the base of the bulb and is installed in a similar fashion to the B22 bulb.  The bulb is inserted and twisted to lock it into place.  These fittings take 240v power through the electrical contacts and do not use any transformers in the circuit, but have the necessary electronics in the base of the bulb.

MR16 Bulb LED Light

Low voltage halogen light bulbs use an MR16 base style, with 2 thin pins that push directly into a light socket.  These bulbs use a base known as a GU 5.3 base, but are not usually referred to in this way.  The 16 is the diameter of the bulb measured in eighths of an inch (16 eighths is 2 inches or 51mm) and the MR stands for multifaceted reflector describing the construction of the bulb.  Despite this MR16 is used to describe this style of bulb.  

R80 Bulb LED Light

The large recessed down lights uses a bulb with a base that is an E27, but the bulb is shaped to fill the fitting.  The R80 is actually the shape of the bulb, not the base and this is how this style of bulb is described.  

PAR38 Bulb LED Light

External spotlights that are often used with a sensor, use a PAR 38 bulb, with an E27 base.  Theses bulbs screw into the fitting, but like the R80 bulbs these are referred to by the type of bulb, not the base type.