It has a red 60w tungsten bulb which blew the other day, I thought I'd go
green and try a CF thinking I could paint it red with some of that stuff for
decorative stain glass effects. After a half hour test the metal fan thing
over the top still hadn't started turning due to lack of heat from the CF
and so no flame effect.....
It now has a 60w red tungsten again, we don't use the fire it's just to fill
a hole in the fireplace but my wife insists on having it lit all evening and
I sit there looking at it thinking, 60w 60w 60w ...........

Any ideas how to 'upgrade' it ?

Pete

HI Pete

On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:08:51 -0000, "Pete Cross" wrote:



It has a red 60w tungsten bulb which blew the other day, I thought I'd go
green and try a CF thinking I could paint it red with some of that stuff for
decorative stain glass effects. After a half hour test the metal fan thing
over the top still hadn't started turning due to lack of heat from the CF
and so no flame effect.....
It now has a 60w red tungsten again, we don't use the fire it's just to fill
a hole in the fireplace but my wife insists on having it lit all evening and
I sit there looking at it thinking, 60w 60w 60w ...........

Any ideas how to 'upgrade' it ?

Probably be cheaper to run the CFL _plus_ a little 12v computer fan
to blow the flame effect thingy round.....

...might need to run it off less than 12v though, depending on the
effect you're wanting.

Failing that - how about a lower wattage bulb - they do standard
filament nightlights down to about 12w...?

Adrian

Pete Cross wrote:

It now has a 60w red tungsten again, we don't use the fire it's just to fill
a hole in the fireplace but my wife insists on having it lit all evening and
I sit there looking at it thinking, 60w 60w 60w ...........

Any ideas how to 'upgrade' it ?

I should try speed-dating, and for your opening question, ask "Do you
like flame-effect fires?"

HTH
David

Adrian, in article lcjvt3tp6cth3246240u04v7ri1dkmjv7v@
4ax.com, says...


Failing that - how about a lower wattage bulb - they do standard
filament nightlights down to about 12w...?


I doubt this will work... This weekend I had to replace a 60W
red GLS and tried a 15W red GLS in a similar fire and the
flicker fan didn't turn. The fan needs the heat output from
the 60W red fireglow lamp to turn so you're stuck with it,
unless you want to do modifications to turn the flicker fan
with something other than heat rising.

I think the special fireglow lamps run with a lower light
output per watt than a normal GLS, doing a side-by-side
comparison. That could be due to the red colour but the
filament seemed less bright...
--
JohnW.
Replace the obvious with co.uk in 2 places to mail me.

HI Huge

On 18 Mar 2008 15:06:42 GMT, Huge wrote:

On 2008-03-18, Adrian wrote:

Failing that - how about a lower wattage bulb - they do standard
filament nightlights down to about 12w...?

They do, but their lifetime is measured in hours. I stopped buying filament
nightlights for that very reason.


Really ?
When we used to breed budgies we used to run a couple of 12w fil.
nightlights to save them getting in a flap overnight - and I'm sure we
used to get similar bulb life to standard 60-watters -
but it was a few lifetimes ago and my memory may be failing me g

(It's seriously dark round here, so we need nightlights to find the loo in the
night and so on. I've become rather a connosieur of nightlights as a result.)

I can imagine g
How bright do you need your nightlights to be - would the 'neon'
plug-top ones do the trick ?

Adrian

Pete Cross wrote:

It has a red 60w tungsten bulb which blew the other day, I thought I'd go
green and try a CF thinking I could paint it red with some of that stuff for
decorative stain glass effects. After a half hour test the metal fan thing
over the top still hadn't started turning due to lack of heat from the CF
and so no flame effect.....
It now has a 60w red tungsten again, we don't use the fire it's just to fill
a hole in the fireplace but my wife insists on having it lit all evening and
I sit there looking at it thinking, 60w 60w 60w ...........

Any ideas how to 'upgrade' it ?

Pete

As said, the simple mechanism needs the 60w. Not sure why
youre worried about a 60w bulb in a 2kW fire though! A bit of
insulation about the house would save far more energy than
mucking about with the bulb.


NT

Owain wrote:
Pete Cross wrote:
... my wife insists on having it lit all evening and
I sit there looking at it thinking, 60w 60w 60w ...........
Any ideas how to 'upgrade' it ?

Or a living flame effect DVD on the television. Presumably she doesn't
watch the fire and the television simultaneously?

No but she'll claim she can because "I'm a woman so I can multi-task"

David

"Pete Cross" wrote in message ...


It has a red 60w tungsten bulb which blew the other day, I thought I'd go
green and try a CF thinking I could paint it red with some of that stuff
for
decorative stain glass effects. After a half hour test the metal fan thing
over the top still hadn't started turning due to lack of heat from the CF
and so no flame effect.....
It now has a 60w red tungsten again, we don't use the fire it's just to
fill
a hole in the fireplace but my wife insists on having it lit all evening
and
I sit there looking at it thinking, 60w 60w 60w ...........

Some people sit and watch flickering lights on a box all evening, it costs
more than your flame.

Mary

"Owain" wrote in message
...
Lobster wrote:
Presumably she doesn't watch the fire and the television simultaneously?
No but she'll claim she can because "I'm a woman so I can multi-task"

She should be able to work some little pedals with her feet whilst doing
the ironing, then.

Only if you sit down to do the ironing - that's the lazy man's way - not
that many men iron. Fewer women too, these days.

I don't know what the world's coming to ... rant ... rant ... rant ... :-)

Mary

Owain says...
Pete Cross wrote:
... my wife insists on having it lit all evening and
I sit there looking at it thinking, 60w 60w 60w ...........
Any ideas how to 'upgrade' it ?

Hamster wheel?

Or a living flame effect DVD on the television. Presumably she doesn't
watch the fire and the television simultaneously?


That's the advantage of having a real log fire. When the TV
adverts come on, watching the flames flickering away is
much more entertaining.

My father has got one of those flame effect jobbies. Bloody
awful thing. He replaced the blown bulb with a 100 Watt one
and the little fan thing went around that fast it converted
the fire into a hypnotic strobe. Still awful though.
--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted.

On 18 Mar, 14:08, "Pete Cross" wrote:
It has a red 60w tungsten bulb which blew the other day, I thought I'd go
green and try a CF thinking I could paint it red with some of that stuff for
decorative stain glass effects.

Umm, you're trying to save 40W or so ... in a 1, 2 or 3kW electric
fire? What's the point?

Ian

The Real Doctor" wrote in message
...
On 18 Mar, 14:08, "Pete Cross" wrote:
It has a red 60w tungsten bulb which blew the other day, I thought I'd
go
green and try a CF thinking I could paint it red with some of that stuff
for
decorative stain glass effects.

Umm, you're trying to save 40W or so ... in a 1, 2 or 3kW electric
fire? What's the point?

Ian

Thanks for all your comments, two of you though missed the point, we do not
use the heater part of the fire, we have central heating, it just blocks
off the hole in the surround and as it's there my wife likes it to be lit.
it just bugs me to have 60w wasted all that time. Maybe it's on top of other
things though, like the TRV's, if she comes home as the heating starts up
then she'll turn the TRV up full " because it warms up quicker " but then
not turn it down so I come home to find nearly all lights on and the house
like a sauna..............

Pete

Pete Cross says...
The Real Doctor" wrote in message
...
On 18 Mar, 14:08, "Pete Cross" wrote:
It has a red 60w tungsten bulb which blew the other day, I thought I'd
go
green and try a CF thinking I could paint it red with some of that stuff
for
decorative stain glass effects.

Umm, you're trying to save 40W or so ... in a 1, 2 or 3kW electric
fire? What's the point?

Ian

Thanks for all your comments, two of you though missed the point, we do not
use the heater part of the fire, we have central heating, it just blocks
off the hole in the surround and as it's there my wife likes it to be lit.
it just bugs me to have 60w wasted all that time. Maybe it's on top of other
things though, like the TRV's, if she comes home as the heating starts up
then she'll turn the TRV up full " because it warms up quicker " but then
not turn it down so I come home to find nearly all lights on and the house
like a sauna..............

Pete



Why not get something more entertaining like a lava lamp or
fibre optic lamp. More entertaining to look at and uses
less electricity (I think).
--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted.

On 20 Mar, 16:24, "Pete Cross" wrote:
The Real Doctor" wrote in ...

Umm, you're trying to save 40W or so ... in a 1, 2 or 3kW electric
fire? What's the point?

Thanks for all your comments, two of you though missed the point, we do not
use the heater part of the fire, we have central heating, it just blocks
off the hole in the surround and as it's there my wife likes it to be lit.
it just bugs me to have 60w wasted all that time.

It's not wasted - it's heating your house! And at 100% efficiency, at
that, so you'll save a significant proportion of the 60W electricity
costs on central heating fuel!

Ian