Lamp shade bulb power ratings

unless they think that a 12W CFL is the largest that will fit physically.

Not necessarily hotter than a traditional bulb but hot enough to shorten its lifetime in the wrong sort of fixture.

The capacitors in the CFL control electronics tend to die if they get too much above 120C. By comparison an over power incandescent will merely set fire to the lampshade and only fail when the glass melts.

CFLs in ceiling mounted glass globes tend to overheat and die young.

An ordinary light bulb runs at up to 200C surface temperature. The electronics of a CFL would very quickly die if they ran that hot. The tube of a CFL is expected to run at 100C max, and the control gear normally no higher than that.

Another factor is that you wouldn't be able to fit a 60W CFL into many fittings designed for a 60W filament lamp.

BTW, a 60W equivalent CFL would be nearer 15W.

The spirel CFLs ones will often fit where the stick ones don't shine (!)

These are pretty big ventilated shell globes - roughly 8" diameter. So you should be able to get a big CFL in although it might not be positioned centrally to the globe. There is also plenty of airflow so heat should not be trapped. So having noted the helpful responses, I am still not really sure why they are only rated for a 12W CFL

Won't be having CFLs anyway because they are on dimmers :-)

Its temperature seems to depend more on maker than wattage, so I suspect that they have been mostly dumb, but maybe just on the safe side just in case.

Brian

What it really means is that a 60W CFL is < a 12W incandescent lamp :)