Anyone else stocking up on 100w bulbs?...or am I just crazy?

HEAR HEAR!

that light bulb ban was written into legislation in 2007.

I just installed a LED 75 watt equivalent retrofit fixture. Sold by Home Depot, it's normally used to replace a bulb in a 5 or 6 inch recessed can ceiling fixture. It can also be installed in a J box. I used it outside on the soffit above my front door. I needed a fixture that was very low in height. Installation was a bit difficult because I had to replace the electrical box to a double deep 4" octagon. Light color spectrum is excellent and it's as bright as claimed. Cost was $37. It's not instant on, but it does come on with full intensity unlike the CFLs. There are two modules that you need to stuff in the mounting box. One is potted and is likely the AC to DC converter power supply. The second seems to be an RFI filter. Like any good engineer I took it apart. Has four capacitors and a common core double wound inductor. It's either a RFI filter or something to smooth the dimmer switch on-off chopping of the line sine waves. All things considered I'm please with it. Consumes 12.5 watts for the equivalent of 75 watts output. The design uses a nice die cast heat sink to hold the non-replaceable LED die. It's about 6-7 inches in diameter and about 1 inch deep. Solved my problem well.

Consumer Reports just published a "review" of incandescent light bulbs, CFL's and LED's.

I'm a subscriber, so if anyone wants the full ratings let me know!

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/maga ... /index.htm

whistlenut wrote:Anyone else tripped over furniture or items not well illuminated while trying to use 60w equivalent CFL's?

I bought a bunch of Philips "Marathon" 13 watt CFLs on closeout a few years ago rated as 60W replacements and they are very bright, at least equivalent to a 75W incandescent, but only after they are warmed up. Flip the switch on a cold winter morning when the house is still coming back from 65F night setting they are really dim.

These bulbs also have some of the best color rendering of any CFL I've tried. Even mixed with incandescents in the same fixture they are difficult to tell apart, only a very slight red/purple cast to the color.

Yeah there are some good ones out there - just don't buy them at Home Depot. The H/D ones buzz & flicker like a bastard.

All my Lightwiz ones have been great. Had a few early failures, but some are still blazing away after 5 years. At a buck a bulb, I couldn't pass that deal up - that's why I have my house full of them. Most of them get to full brightness in a few seconds, even when the house is in the upper 50's before I light up. Was some offer the power company had - if you lived in MA or RI, you got these bulbs for next to nothing. I tried them all: 15W, 20W, 25W, & 30W. The 30's are real bright, the 25's I thought were pointless because it's so close to the 30 & the 20 that you might as well go with the 20 - they thought the same as they've been discontinued, the 20 is ok, & the 15 is tiny - fits in any fixture & puts out more light than I expected. Great for hallways.

Everyone knows I couldn't give a rats ass about eco BS, but they work & they were cheap.

Plus, that's more power the generator has for everything else I've wired up to my transfer switch.

I'm not sold on CFL's. I figure that I burn at least an extra 2-3 tons of coal keeping the house warm enough for the CFL's to turn on in a reasonable amount of time.

The winner of the 60 watt LED Edison socket light bulb competition has been announced. The prize is a cool $10 million. It's Philips with this bulb:



Consumers Report story is here:

http://news.consumerreports.org/home/20 ... llion.html

The specs for the competition is here:

http://www.lightingprize.org/overview_60watt.stm

Our electric company just sent us a complementary case of CFLs. But most of our lamps are 3-way.

SMITTY wrote:I don't even want to say what I have in the barn .... .... except for the two 200 watt Westinghouse bulbs that I am the proud owner of. I fire them up in the outside lights on earth day, with a sign pointing out that they're 200 watts each.

I have a case (6 pcs.) of 6000 lumen 6.6A series incandescent lamps for streetlighting service (and matching fixtures) that consume 330 watts. They are in a PS40 mogul base bulb which is 5" in diameter! Series streetlights ran at a fixed current rating, i.e. 6.6 amps, although 15A and 20A were used sporadically. Various sized lamps could be used provided they were all 6.6 amp series type, each lamp having a different voltage requirement at 6.6 amps. My 6000 lumen lamps run at about 50 volts, so I use a large Variac and can run either 1 or 2 lamps at once. The normal control gear for a series string simply varied the voltage supplied to keep the current at 6.6A, and voltages were commonly several kV. If a lamp burned out, a "cutout" disc in the socket would be perforated due to the high voltage and allow the dead lamp to be bypassed, just like a set of Christmas lights.

Here's what I use.Can't figure out why I have so much trouble seeing at night. Yep, these are from back when.

Please stock up now while you can..................... or your easy bake oven will never work correctly again.

I've had really mixed results with the CFL's. Some I bought were total garbage. Same thing other people are saying, when you first flip them on they are dim as can be and have to warm up. They weren't the coil type, they were round like a regular bulb. I guess that's so they don't look so odd in a ceiling fan. The most useless ones I bought were the flood lights that go outside. You know, the big bright ones you flip on outside when you think you saw something moving out there and you wanna make the place look like noon at 10pm. These have to warm up too, and that process takes even longer in the winter time. You flip them on, and it's really just a warning light for the intruder. Run now before the light gets bright enough for the guy inside can see you. Come back later and try again. Yeah, theives love these things. Plus, just think of all the extra goodies that could be inside from all the $ they saved from using those bulbs!

I did buy one type of CFL that is very good. It's a GE Reveal. It is instant-on and full brightness just like an incandecent. I have it in a table lamp, and it works great, and uses 20 watts. But there seem to be so many types, styles and manufacturers now, when you find a good bulb you better go back and stock up on that one.

Hey, maybe those incandesent bulbs your hoarding up on will be worth some serious dough by 2060. An antique in mint condition! And it still works! Just imagine if someone had an antique gas lamp that we used before electricity still in the box in mint condition. Cha Ching! You'll be the coolest guy in town.

I must have been down in the mines too long. I finally decided to fix the kitchen light today as it wasn't lighting up since May. I figured it would need a new transformer. Went to Home Depot and called a Electric supply place looking for a magnetic ballast. I was literally asked where have I been. Apparently they haven't been produced for years and apparently it's illegal to manufacture them. All that was available were electronic ballast. Sure I can replace the ballast, but the migraines it triggers in my wife gets rather costly to treat @ $35.00/tablet. So I guess my choice is to get a 4 bulb incandescent light and spray the kitchen with 240 watts of light.

Electronic ballasts give your wife migraines? I have found them to provide a nice light than the old magnetic ones...no flickering.