Turned Wood Table Lamp

Details

A table lamp on a turned mango wood base with a cotton drum shade, built and tested to IS 10322 Part 1 and Part 5 Section 4, the Indian standard for portable general purpose luminaires. A decorative lamp is an electrical product first and it is sold as if it were an ornament, which is where three cheats live. The first is the flex: 0.5 sq mm passed off as 0.75, or copper-clad aluminium sold as copper, which has about forty percent more resistance per metre, runs warmer and work-hardens and snaps at the strain relief. The second is the earth, dropped to save a core on a lamp that has an exposed metal holder and a metal shade ring. The third is the absence of a maximum lamp rating, so a customer fits a 60 W incandescent into a shade sized for a fraction of that heat and scorches the lining.

• Built and tested to IS 10322 Part 1 and Part 5 Section 4. A lamp is a luminaire, not a household appliance, so IS 302 is not the standard that governs it, and a seller quoting IS 302 at a table lamp has quoted the wrong one
• Flex is 3 core, 0.75 sq mm annealed copper to IS 694, 2 m long, earthed, with a moulded 6 A three-pin plug
• No copper-clad aluminium. Conductor material and cross section are both on the test report
• B22d bayonet holder to IS 1258, rated 2 A at 250 V, which is now mandatory under the Electrical Accessories Quality Control Order 2023
• Maximum 15 W LED, printed on the lamp itself. Never fit an incandescent above 40 W
• Insulation resistance above 2 megohm at 500 V DC, dielectric withstand 1.5 kV for one minute, earth continuity below 0.1 ohm
• Inline rocker switch on the flex, within reach of the table
• The shade is cotton laminated to a polystyrene backing, and we print that rather than calling it a cotton shade, because an unbacked cotton shade holds no shape at all. Bulb not included, and the shade is a warm diffuser, so the light is soft rather than bright.