The height of cheapness

**Admin** Mon Jan 06, 2014 12:45 am

The other day I was about to toss a box of burnt out bulbs I had sitting in the basement, every time a bulb would burn out, I would toss it in there. I was just going through them to see if any of the 3 ways still had a good filament (sometimes only the 100w filament goes and the 50w is still good). I noticed that some of the bulbs in there had filaments that appeared as if I could just rotate the bulb a little and get it to reconnect. I have reconnected broken filaments inside early cage filament bulbs (from about 1915) so I thought I would go ahead and see what I can do. I grabbed my socket cord (a cord with a keyed light socket at the end), plugged it in and screwed in the burnt out bulb. I flipped it around a little and when the filament came together, I turned it on. I did this to several bulbs that appeared to still have the filament mostly intact. I got a few of them to light up and the one which I thought was the most fragile is still working after a few days (the others I just stuck in an empty bulb package), it still comes on after being turned on and off a few times. We'll see how long it lasts. If it blows it blows, it would have been thrown out anyway so why not get a few extra hours of light out of it LOL!

The height of cheapness Fixed_10

Pictures taken through a floppy disk.

As some of you know, at the beginning of this year it is now against the law to manufacture and import standard incandescent bulbs from 40w to 100w in the US. The 100w went in 2012, the 75w went in 2013 and at the start of this year the 60w and the 40w are up. For years now I have been stashing extra packs away. All the stores around here are completely sold out of 60s and 40s. I haven't seen 75s for some time now and some stores like Menards and Home Depot filled warehouses with packs of 100w bulbs so every so often you'll see one of those stores selling them. Hopefully they did the same with the 40s and the 60s. While I do have CFLs and an LED bulb in use, they can't completely replace incandescents in every application. CFLs take forever to warm up to full brightness in extra cold temps so I don't use them in the garage, the shed and the back porch. You shouldn't use them in recessed can lights unless the can light has extra ventilation near the socket. Same goes for other enclosed fixtures. Dimmable CFLs and LED bulbs are a joke (especially the CFLs). So far most CFLs have only lasted no more than 2 years (if even that). I had 4 CFLs violently blow out now, 1 actually catch fire with flames (they were all brand name, not all from the same package, all used in different lamps and fixtures). They need to build the ballasts better, enough with the cheap components. I think I only have 3 still in regular use, 1 that has been in regular use for the last 5 years and the other 2 are in storage rooms. The LED bulbs need some more development, so far the Cree 9.5w (60w replacement) is all right.

PV Pilot Mon Jan 06, 2014 2:55 am

Not being cheap Jacob,,just frugal. Very Happy

Edison is turning in his grave. Everyone has turned against him. People who grew up with Incan lights are now stepping over to the dark side just because someone else said they were better. I hate the fact that soon,,you wont have that choice of light bulb just because someone else says that the new ones are better and that manufacturing something that was our idea is now all overseas or over borders. I realize it hasn't been the first time nor will it be that last,,it just sucks,,that's all.

No more wattage ratings for brightness per say,,it's all about Lumens and it has been for quite some time. Less power to run the new ones,,but definitely qestionable lumens ratings and quality.

RIP Incandescent light bulb,, we were born under you, you showed us the way, and for that we appreciate your hard work for 135 years.

Not to far in the distant future duplex receptacles in your/new houses will be replaced by RJ45 jacks and all the lighting will be LED. Your lamp will have an RJ45 jack on the end and plugged into the wall. The basement will have a High POE switch that runs all the jacks. Lamps will either be turned on the old fashion way with a switch or a touch panel on the wall. The only place in the house with high voltage receptacles will be the kitchen, laundry , AC and such. Run a CAT6 to a Jbox and split it to four jacks to power 4 lights. No more romex and bx, all low voltage cable except for a few appliances that will still need the 110vac.

Kim Mon Jan 06, 2014 7:14 am

I've been "collecting" bulbs for some time now, in the same manner as my casually picking up a couple boxes of .223 on each and every visit to Walmart, back in the days before the current bunch of Fruit Bats took power. Got enough for a pretty good while, though I AM testing an LED bulb for my desk lamp.

Maybe "Bulb Running" my supply of 75 watt'ers will augment what's left of my retirement in the coming years !!!

roddie Mon Jan 06, 2014 7:27 am

Kim wrote:I've been "collecting" bulbs for some time now, in the same manner as my casually picking up a couple boxes of .223 on each and every visit to Walmart, back in the days before the current bunch of Fruit Bats took power. Got enough for a pretty good while, though I AM testing an LED bulb for my desk lamp.

Maybe "Bulb Running" my supply of 75 watt'ers will augment what's left of my retirement in the coming years !!!

"Fruit Bats" lol!

If they fly at night kim... you could shoot them with your rifle.. kinda' like "skeet"... with an LED spot light and camera mounted on the end of the barrel! Clapping

Kim Mon Jan 06, 2014 7:50 am

Well, they all got Drones now...so it may not end well for me !!! But a Good Ole Boy goes down fight'n!

Actually, I probably should retract that statement, as the comparison is an un-called-for insult to a more respectable species of rodent who fly and fend for themselves............

**Cribbs74** Mon Jan 06, 2014 8:36 am

I've done the same thing Jacob. It works great on aquarium bulbs. I have not been hording bulbs, although I do like that warm light much better. I have been stocking up on ammo a little though.

Ron

pkrankow Mon Jan 06, 2014 9:05 am

I like the ~2700K color of light that incandescent lights naturally produce, and have purchased CFL lights with that color. Fewer headaches than with the "cool white" bulbs. (light induces migraines suck)

No, I have not been hoarding bulbs, though I should have been. Incandescent bulbs are excellent heaters.

I was an "early adopter" and purchased a set of CFL lights for the kitchen of a rental my wife and I were in 12 or so years ago (we weren't married yet though) Stupid bulbs were about $10 each (3 needed) and took 10 minutes to produce decent light (kinda nice first thing in the morning...but not any other time of day). I had to talk to the complex handyman about it as well before changing them out*. The life of that set was pretty good, as after 2 years I left them when we moved.**

What I can say is the use of CFL and LED bulbs have reduced my electric bill. The dimmer settings on either are plain bad, although apparently the new breed of LED use a digital circuit to dim and work better, however I fear they use pulsing to dim like LED flashlights, instead of reducing the output. The flickering will drive me nuts over time if I am forced to keep seeing stop-motion action! (yes, my LED MAG lite produces stop-motion effects to my eye on "dim" OK for 5 minutes, not OK for much longer.)

Phil

*Between the lights taking forever to warm up and the cat laying down behind him while working on the dishwasher, then wrapping its tail around his neck the handyman was always leery of visiting.

**the previous tenant was rather power hungry. I had to pay a $700 deposit on the electrical, when the average monthly bill was around $75. At least I got my deposit back after 12 months. I did receive an apology stating my deposit should have been about $150...

pkrankow Mon Jan 06, 2014 9:10 am

I've done that countless times when the bulb gets bumped working with a drop light. I would say 1 in 3 would relight slightly dimmer, once, without replacing.

Phil

SuperDave Mon Jan 06, 2014 10:01 am

But some of you don't seem to undertandstand the the US Government knows what's best for us like the 1.6 liter (double-flusher) toilet saving water. lol!

SD

PV Pilot Mon Jan 06, 2014 10:47 am

RISSLE FRASSEN GARLAR BARGAR BUMFASUS!

Just now tried to replace the burnt out 60w Incan light in the NuTone Heater-light-fan in the bathroom and have one of the new curly bulb fluorescent replacement jobs. Will not fit!. The glass curly hits the light housing and wont screw in. If I bend the light socket tab down to make some room,,it's going to pop off, I can see that plain as day. Down to the 25° shop to dig into my stash of Incan's.

Until they get it figured out,I have a feeling I am going to find more of these types of obstructions,,just saying.

SuperDave Mon Jan 06, 2014 11:51 am

Keith:

But wait "Big Brother" (the US Government) knows best.

BTW: The lakes in Lewis and Yakima Counties treated me well this summer.

Regards,

SuperDave

roddie Mon Jan 06, 2014 12:06 pm

Many people may be unaware of the fact that the amount of light that enters the eye; particularly upon waking from a sleep, has a significant effect on "positive" brain stimulation. It is recommended that a particularly bright light(s) be used in the bathroom and kitchen... where we would most normally go "first".. when leaving the bedroom. Research indicates that people living in regions having consistent overcast or "dark" climates have a higher degree of diagnosed mental depression... and why rainy days are associated with having the "blues".

Luckily... fluorescent light does not bother me. I have x2 circle-line 22w. magnifier fixtures mounted to my workbench, that I find indispensable. I scored x4 of these fixtures being thrown out.. which merely needed "starters"... and lamps. These fixtures typically have a 1/2" dia. post-mount, so I used some copper pipe as sleeve bearings on either side of my bench, and also made a portable c-clamp mount.

Roddie

The height of cheapness Fluor_10

pkrankow Mon Jan 06, 2014 12:15 pm

PV Pilot wrote:RISSLE FRASSEN GARLAR BARGAR BUMFASUS!

Just now tried to replace the burnt out 60w Incan light in the NuTone Heater-light-fan in the bathroom and have one of the new curly bulb fluorescent replacement jobs. Will not fit!. The glass curly hits the light housing and wont screw in. If I bend the light socket tab down to make some room,,it's going to pop off, I can see that plain as day. Down to the 25° shop to dig into my stash of Incan's.

Until they get it figured out,I have a feeling I am going to find more of these types of obstructions,,just saying.

There is a smaller size that might work better for this situation. I have some Sylvania brand "micro-mini" CFLs that are about the size of a 25W appliance light bulb, but put out like a normal intensity light bulb.

I rather like this particular bulb, although they do have a tendency to go to a flickering failure mode, like a bad starter.

I have noticed CFLs suffer "infant death" where a noteworthy number of lights fail within weeks of installation (something like 1 in 5) but the bulbs that survive this time last quite a while.

The "candle" shaped ones look like...not candles. (my wife had much more... *ahem*... choice language when I switched one fixture's lights out)

My new Cadet 3 toilets flush much better than the toilets from the early 70's I used to have. The avocado color wasn't why I replaced, the 2 flushes to flush waiting 10 minutes to fill was. I have NEVER needed a plunger on any of these new toilets in 4 years. The 2 minutes to fill, and nearly silent flush are nice benefits too. The lower flush volume is easier on my septic too.

Phil

PV Pilot Mon Jan 06, 2014 1:48 pm

SuperDave wrote:Keith:

But wait "Big Brother" (the US Government) knows best.

BTW: The lakes in Lewis and Yakima Counties treated me well this summer.

Regards,

SuperDave

Yes,, the mattress police have swapped out there badges for the lightbulb/dimbulb police. And they are all rookies now. (All forum lightbulb police excluded from above statement).

Mark Boesen Mon Jan 06, 2014 2:21 pm

hey Roddie,

I hate to say...or i'm proud to say, our workshop areas look very much alike!
I've been thinking, with my 'senior' eyes about getting a 'desk' type light like that with the magnifier, I did swap out the bulb on mine with a florescent....it's a lot cooler and lasts a lot longer.

also,

I also swapped out the incandescing bulb on my 40 year old trouble light, no more filament to break.

I don't really have a problem with the new lights, but I kinda do with the government making the decision for me.

Cheapness idea #46: Order a large ice water at the drive thru, you'll save a buck or better and if you eat out alot like I do, its adds up.

batjac Mon Jan 06, 2014 2:33 pm

When we put an addition on our house a few years ago, we put in canned lights with a sliding dimmer. I put in incandescent bulbs, but my wife wanted CFLs for money savings. So, she swapped out the bulbs with her CFLs. She had the room painted a color called "wheat straw", which is kind of a light beige. Well, when the CFLs were turned on, it made the paint look "split pea green". I told her that and she got upset. So she moved the dimmer slide down and asked, "How about now?" I just said, "Scorched split pea soup". Very Happy

She wasn't impressed. But, since then the room's had incandescent bulbs and I'm happy.

The Honest Mark

Kim Mon Jan 06, 2014 2:41 pm

batjac wrote:When we put an addition on our house a few years ago, we put in canned lights with a sliding dimmer. I put in incandescent bulbs, but my wife wanted CFLs for money savings. So, she swapped out the bulbs with her CFLs. She had the room painted a color called "wheat straw", which is kind of a light beige. Well, when the CFLs were turned on, it made the paint look "split pea green". I told her that and she got upset. So she moved the dimmer slide down and asked, "How about now?" I just said, "Scorched split pea soup". She wasn't impressed. But, since then the room's had incandescent bulbs and I'm happy.

The Honest Mark

You...my man...are just too cool !!! A Hoot of appreciative laughter and respect for you !!!!

**Admin** Mon Jan 06, 2014 8:54 pm

My bulb stash, the shelves are over 1.5ft deep. If you use incandescent bulbs, its not entirely too late to start hoarding if you haven't built up a stock of bulbs yet. The longer you wait, the higher you will pay the less of a chance you will find all the ones you need. Might as well as get them now as you'll eventually need them. The #1 reason why the bulb ban p!$$es me off is because the government is telling me what to buy. If the new alternative lamps are indeed better, people would eventually shift on their own, not because the government says its time to switch. Take a look at the bulbs in the past, the old carbon filament bulbs were dimmer and hotter, then between 1909-1912 tungsten drawn cage filament bulbs started to come out, by the mid 1920s, most bulbs in use were of the tungsten filament kind. The government had nothing to do about this switch.

The fixed 40w in my first post is still going!

I too have a fluorescent magnifier lamp on my workbench, I have it lit up all the time.

**Admin** Sun Jan 19, 2014 12:11 am

The bulb in the first post blew yesterday...took a $5 3A discontinued Edison base type-W fast-acting plug fuse with it

batjac Sun Jan 19, 2014 1:23 am

Bummer. Not sure how the bulb took the fuse with it, but that's probably about right. Fuses are fickle, in my experience.

On a side note, yesterday I bought a case of 12 incandescent flood bulbs for the addition I mentioned in an earlier post, and about 30 more 60 watt bulbs for various applications around the house. I'm set for a couple of years.

The Prepper Mark

PV Pilot Sun Jan 19, 2014 4:32 am

When those filament ends separated, it probably pulled 4 amps for a millisecond. Jacobs ladder demo style, POW!.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNwaASB6EcQ

Ended up at Homer Depot yesterday and bought all of there remaining 150 and 200w Incans. Before the ban, these bulbs were $6-7+ each. Now they are $1.50 per as they clear them out. Yanked both curly bulb Florescent's crap lights out of the wide, old school ceramic bases in the garage ceiling and put in two 150w. Oh the beautiful bright clear light,,and so much easier to see things. 2710 lumens on the 150w, 3780 on the 200w. The 150w are clear and the 200w are frosted. If the 200's were clear, they would be much higher on that rating. Not a long rated life at .7 months,,but they are nice and bright. I have one 150w that is going on 4 years.

pkrankow Sun Jan 19, 2014 12:05 pm

Yea, those incandescent bulbs actually turn on in the garage in the winter, instead of giving a poor flicker. I make sure there is an incandescent bulb in the garage for this reason, although a 40w is all I need as there are CFL's and .

I have some 4-ft fixtures with polycarbonate bulb protectors, not because they need protection in my garage, but because they retain heat in cold weather and the bulbs light up after a couple minutes.

There is a device in the base of a bulb that is supposed to prevent arcing (the big blue flash) when the element fails. This device doesn't always work.

In my experience it never works on the candle style bulbs meaning when the lights in the bathroom chandelier pop, it takes out the breaker too. (I don't know why there is a chandelier in my bathroom, it was there when we bought the place and I haven't changed it out yet because there is carpet and a sunken tub that has to also go. At least the flocked foil wallpaper is gone.) Same thing happens to any of the other 10 light fixtures that take this XXXX bulb.

Phil

balogh Sun Jan 19, 2014 1:27 pm

SuperDave wrote:But some of you don't seem to undertandstand the the US Government knows what's best for us like the 1.6 liter (double-flusher) toilet saving water.

SD

Gents you may be right with this polemia on the merits of incandescent lights vs the ecologically (but not ergonomically) justifiable (?) newtech bulbs, but I must admit, with due respect, that every time I go to the US and stay in any hotel I always wonder who on the earth may have invented the one-armed hotel bathroom shower taps with which only the temperature but not the waterflow of the shower can be set? I probably, and beyond my control, use at least as much water for a few minutes shower in a US hotel room as flows down Niagara Falls in an hour... Let the Fruit Bats (as some of you nicknamed them) Very Happy

reform at least the US hotel bathroom taps, please...(I did not mean to generate an international dispute on how best to preserve natural resources...BTW I am running a company that sells water and power saving dry cooling systems for fossile power stations, including the USA, so I really mean it...)

PV Pilot Sun Jan 19, 2014 1:44 pm

Bought a tool last year that you loop over the small long christmas lights. If the bulb burns out this tool closes the shunt in the bulb, so the rest of the string stays lit. it closes them some of the time,, but not always. Kinda looks like a toy pistol with a metal loop projecting from the end of the barrel per say. Little piezio spark generator in there I think.

pkrankow Sun Jan 19, 2014 2:58 pm

balogh wrote:
SuperDave wrote:But some of you don't seem to undertandstand the the US Government knows what's best for us like the 1.6 liter (double-flusher) toilet saving water.

SD

Gents you may be right with this polemia on the merits of incandescent lights vs the ecologically (but not ergonomically) justifiable (?) newtech bulbs, but I must admit, with due respect, that every time I go to the US and stay in any hotel I always wonder who on the earth may have invented the one-armed hotel bathroom shower taps with which only the temperature but not the waterflow of the shower can be set? I probably, and beyond my control, use at least as much water for a few minutes shower in a US hotel room as flows down Niagara Falls in an hour... Let the Fruit Bats (as some of you nicknamed them) reform at least the US hotel bathroom taps, please...(I did not mean to generate an international dispute on how best to preserve natural resources...BTW I am running a company that sells water and power saving dry cooling systems for fossile power stations, including the USA, so I really mean it...)

There is supposed to be a flow restricter in the shower head that prevents more water than 2.5 gallon per minute so the flow adjustment of the faucet is not "necessary".

However most flow restricters are a insert that can be removed without special tools, so someone could easily have removed said device...

Phil

Do I need to point out the quotes on "necessary"?

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