Posted on 07/11/2009 4:24:31 AM PDT by Scanian
They are called variable voltage or REA light bulbs, and are commonly sold in hardware stores. In the right place they are no more expensive than normal lamps.
The filament has a little more tungsten, a little higher resistance, a little less brillance and does last longer. Another tip is to buy “clear” light bulbs, they last longer because the heat is not reflected back into the bulb by the white frosting. The problem with them is glare, but in the right light fixture it is not problem. They also heat the light fixture more since the heat is radiated out of the bulb.
There is a company in CA called Feit electric, they have all kinds of odd bulbs (from offshore) and are a good company. We have sold them for years. They sell the 130 volt lamps in maintainence packs (like 24 pk of common sizes) for commercial use. (cheaper) Just suggestions.
We are 60 miles North of Abilene.
OK I have passed through. .0)
MADE IN CHINA
By the way, we had to buy and feed a lot of hay this year to keep our cattle. Price was low, and very little pasture. Since the recent rains things are better, and a couple of our “water ways” have a great hay crop that we look forward to having cut soon.
We had a total crop failure on our “seed wheat” business this year, because of no rain in the fall and winter. Worst conditions since the early 1950’s.
Looks better now, and we recently sold some of our cattle. Have a calf crop about ready to go soon. We are pretty limited on cattle (small pasture), we primarily farm, not ranch.
We still have some grass in the black land parts but the sandy land is toast. My husband raises bucking stock, not beef cattle and his herd is relatively small (maybe 150 just guessing) so he hasn’t had to start feeding to keep them alive (yet). He spent a lot of money on grass seed, fertilizer and weed killer earlier this year and that has been pretty much a loss.
My father planted $9,000 of foundation seed last fall and did not harvest a grain of seed wheat. That is just seed cost. He had about 400 acres of that variety. We have about 3 sections of farm. Not a single acre was harvested. Collected the insurance, but it did little more than recover seed cost.
Some of our large customers were able to harvest from earlier planting than ours, and we let them use our storage bins to put theirs up. We have enough left over from previous year to plan ours, except for the foundation seed.
The seed licensing issue is an absolute mine field. Still not sure it is worth the effort, but it is the law.
Too many rules, make everything less competitive and more expensive. This is what big government does to us. Life should be simple and honest. It is neither.
He spent more than that and got nothing in return. My husbands cattle operation is a retirement hobby. It keeps him active and happy, there is no insurance. If he loses money it’s just gone. He is selling some heifers now because it is getting too big.
130 volt bulbs, as opposed to 120 volts, will last for years and years. They cost more but boy do they last.He's not BSing you. My house was built in 2001 and all but one of the original 130V bulbs is still working. The blown one was in a fixture that was arching due to a bad socket.Not sure if you're pulling my light cord there. Never heard of 130V bulbs.
There is some kind of a thingey that you can put into the socket and then screw the bulb into it, forget what they were called. I used those on my front porch lights, left them on for 24 hours a day and the bulbs lasted 8 years.
(I am not joking) The light is dimmed but 8 years? that's fantastic!
Go to Bering Hardware in Houston and ask for that thingey, they are used to women like me asking for stuff like that. People there know everything, great store.
Yes I have heard about your global cooling, wish we could get a little of it. An artist friend of mine when to Maine to paint for 2 weeks, only had 4 days without rain and with a little sun.
I have four that have been there for over two years. I'll check the brand.
Thanks for the info on the 130V lamps. I have been doing industrial electrical repair for thirty years and didn't know about them.
A higher voltage rating means they are using less than rated current at 120V. That's why there is less light and they last longer.
Depends on where they go. In a porch light controlled by nothing but a dusk to dawn photo eye, they will last for over a year.
CFL LIGHTBULBS WITH THEIR ELECTRONIC BALLASTS WILL NOT WORK WITH THE MOST COMMON MOTION SENSORS SWITCHES YOU HAVE IN YOUR HOME!
And no poison!!
I get packs of 4 for 85 cents to $1.00, so 22 cents each is correct. CFL bulbs cost me more than $1.00 each
Yes, I think it has promise.
Earlier comments mentioned efficiency. The issue is not energy efficiency, they are low power, but they are low output level.
LED’s are reversed biased diodes that emit light. The current they draw is based on the knee voltage drop across the diode junction. You can gain output by adding LED or making larger LED’s. Some of the larger LED’s are still just a packaging trick not an enlarged junction.
The life of the LED’s is very very long. Possibly up to 150,000 hours.
I plan to seriously stock up on incandescents, but if/when forced to choose one of the newer bulbs, we will go LED. I won’t have the mercury poison bulbs in my home.
The brand I have are GE 26 watt CFL's. They have been there for almost two years. They are a little pricier but worth it.
Which is why they will resist producing them for general lighting applications. No planned obsolescence.
I think the light level is the main issue at this time, and cost, but I do not understand why they should be so expensive because LED’s are not.
They are essentially a low voltage DC device.
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