On Fri, 16 Jan 2015 17:12:47 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 16 Jan 2015 07:10:37 -0800, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Fri, 16 Jan 2015 07:30:12 -0500, wrote:

On Thu, 15 Jan 2015 23:08:59 -0600, Martin Eastburn
wrote:

On 1/15/2015 6:15 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 14 Jan 2015 23:14:33 -0600, Martin Eastburn
wrote:

On 1/14/2015 3:32 PM, Steve W. wrote:
wrote:
On Wed, 14 Jan 2015 10:45:56 -0600, "Paul K. Dickman"
wrote:

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
Grease is an excellent idea. On a similar theme, I've been replacing
corroded light bulbs (with broken bulbs) in 2 different ladies' houses
recently and have used a skosh of either white lithium or vaseline on
the sockets and bases I'm putting the bulbs in. They won't have
another broken bulb again and all those gawdawful incans will be easy
to change from now on. One lady got so rambunctious that she ripped
up the socket base, too. This on a ladder 10' up in her house. She
had the concept OK, but you''re only supposed to put the needle nose
pliers on the broken bulb base and twist. She got both. Aluminum on
aluminum creates a sticky problem.

I use NO-OX grease, the stuff you use for Al wire. Mostly because I
bought a giant tube of it 20 years ago and it's still in my electric
toolkit and nearly full.

Somewhere, decades ago, they started making the bases on cheap bulbs
out of aluminum.
This wasn't a problem because they made the screw shell in the socket
out of brass or nickle.

Then they started cheaping out on the sockets too. Al on Al
(particularly in a base up configuration) is a recipe for problems.

Paul K. Dickman
Not a problem with the lights at our church - the bulbs have not been
lasting long enough for corrosion to set in!!! In the building 16
months and I've replaced half the bulbs already (and that's with less
than 6 hours a week use!!!)

What make are those bulbs???????

Switch to LED, at the rate you're swapping bulbs they would pay for
themselves in about a year!

I suspect the bulbs are special types - but LED's come in all shapes
now. Even Sams have flame lamps.

Martin
The bulbs are standard 100 watt edison base bulbs.

Lots of replacements available in LED.

Martin
yes, but there are over 40 of them and at least here in Canada 60 or
100 watt equivalents are still pricey. E still have a couple 8-packs
left - enough to relamp the rest with a few spares - picked up on sale
at thr ocal Home Hardware.

Give them away to churchgoers.

I've been paying $2-4USD per bulb direct from China, Singapore, and
Hong Kong via eBay.

Been doing the same with MR16 and GU10s - and changing them too often

220v or 12v? I've had far fewer dropouts with 12v lamps from China.
Their voltage-drop circuits haven't been the best. With the new used
o-scope from Gunner, I may be able to troubleshoot those now, or start
building my own.


Yes, it's more expensive than incans, but the
church 1) won't have the expense of hiring someone to change them
every month.
No cost to change them. When one goes out I grab the "swizzle stick"
and change it - less than 5 minutes including chasing the stick and
bulb.
and 2) has a much lower running cost for the new LEDs.
It's a sound investment for the church of up to a mere $125, with a
ROI in under a year in most cases. Plus, it's a helluva lot less
hassle.
Where are you buying dimmable E26 or E27 100 watt (or even 60)
equivalent bulbs for under $10??? And they can't be the Phillips
"flatties"

I said I won't support the shabby output from North American suppliers
since they won't give me anything more than yellowish 60w light output
and they want far too much money for them. Once they build pure white
(5000k or better) 100-watt-equivalent bulbs, I'll consider them. 4100k
is OK for CFLs, but I want 5000k-6500k for LEDs.

My biggest gripe right now is that most of the medium to high-output
LEDs are in spot format, not flood. The corncobs fix that, but at
much higher price. I'm paying nearly $11 for a 20W corn bulb now,
delivered from halfway around the world. One died a few months later,
and they sent another one at no cost. http://tinyurl.com/pp5sxd6
current offering is $12.82 with 102x 5050 chips. They run cool and
bright for pennies on the dollar.


The 12w dimmables were my most expensive bulbs, at $3.99 ea, with free
shipping. I think I may stick with dimmables from now on, too, as
they are OK in motion detector and home automation circuits without
modification. The others strobe.

I've gone through a couple hundred MR16 12 watt units at the office,
and in my home office I have a string of 7 lights that have consimed
over 35 GU10s in the last 3 years. I've used the 3X3 and 4X3 crees and
the COBs They've all been less than stellar in the longevity
department.

I've only had one die. Heat is the largest problem, so the bunched
lights will be the first to go. My 15-watters may have that problem
(5x3), but I doubt the 12W (4x3) will. They have a large, gooped
heatsink and run quite a bit cooler. All of the multiple-chipped SMD
LEDs I've bought are still running cool and long. I run a 3.5W in my
articulated lamps and they're perfect for reading and tasks.
http://tinyurl.com/kjdjzve 12w $3.99 with free shipping. Most of my
purchases are shipping-subsidized by the Chinese gov't, I believe, but
it sure lowers the cost.

Thinking about this, I believe most of my lamps have used a different
brand of LED chip, Epistar. The above vendor claims it's the #1 Asian
brand for LEDs. I wonder if black market or substandard CREE chips
are the problem for you. Hot-running LED bulbs aren't in my future.
They're both a hassle and are more prone to die early deaths. Crees go
for more money, so I don't buy them. Most of my large bulbs are Buy-
it-now, but the smaller bulbs and larger batches are auctions with no
other bidding. For the T-10 bulb sockets/pigtails, I bid on a dozen
before getting two lots of 10 for $3.42 and $1.99, delivered. BIN was
$4-6 a lot. Then there's the month to wait for your product. g That
said, I may be overstocked for my lifetime with LEDs now, and the
total cost to me was less than if I'd bought a handful of American
bulbs. I had really lousy luck with FEIT brand CFLs when I was in
that particular buying-spree. 4 of 12 died. I'm still using some of
the old (3300k, ick) ULA CFLs from a dozen purchased a decade ago.
They're dimmable so they remain in the ceiling fan lamp above my
dining table. I think I have 8 left. Cost: $1.99 ea with free
shipping in 2004 when locally available CFLs were $5 a pop, and none
of those was dimmable.

sniff, sniff Oh, my lamb Vindaloo is done. Time to eat.
Globalization has its advantages.

--
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-- George Bernard Shaw