Hello,

Perhaps a daft question but can you use any old 15W SES bulb in a
fridge or does it have to be a special one?

I know that ovens use a special bulb that will withstand 300 degrees
C, presumably to stop something melting. Is there a similar "low
temperature" bulb for fridges? After all, I would think that going
from hot when illuminated to cold in the fridge would place additional
strain on the bulb.

I ask because I saw a pair of 15W pygmy bulbs for £2 in a supermarket
today and next to it one fridge bulb, which looked identical, for £2.
Both made by GE. It seems silly to buy the fridge one at twice the
price if it's the same as the "ordinary" bulbs.

Thanks.

In article ,
Stephen writes:
Hello,

Perhaps a daft question but can you use any old 15W SES bulb in a
fridge or does it have to be a special one?

I know that ovens use a special bulb that will withstand 300 degrees
C, presumably to stop something melting. Is there a similar "low
temperature" bulb for fridges? After all, I would think that going
from hot when illuminated to cold in the fridge would place additional
strain on the bulb.

I ask because I saw a pair of 15W pygmy bulbs for £2 in a supermarket
today and next to it one fridge bulb, which looked identical, for £2.
Both made by GE. It seems silly to buy the fridge one at twice the
price if it's the same as the "ordinary" bulbs.

I think you can use any one providing it's not too physically large.
You might find the fridge one is a bit more shock resistant.
Don't know of it might have hardened glass too perhaps, although
15W pigmy lamps are normally OK exposed in the rain anyway.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Stephen wrote:
Hello,

Perhaps a daft question but can you use any old 15W SES bulb in a
fridge or does it have to be a special one?

I know that ovens use a special bulb that will withstand 300 degrees
C, presumably to stop something melting. Is there a similar "low
temperature" bulb for fridges? After all, I would think that going
from hot when illuminated to cold in the fridge would place additional
strain on the bulb.

I ask because I saw a pair of 15W pygmy bulbs for £2 in a supermarket
today and next to it one fridge bulb, which looked identical, for £2.
Both made by GE. It seems silly to buy the fridge one at twice the
price if it's the same as the "ordinary" bulbs.

Thanks.
they might have a different coil to cope with thermal shock

--
Kevin R
Reply address works

"Stephen" wrote in message
...

I ask because I saw a pair of 15W pygmy bulbs for £2 in a supermarket
today and next to it one fridge bulb, which looked identical, for £2.

so you can buy a twin pack of normal bulbs, use one of them in the fridge,
if it dosent last long you can use the 'spare' untill that goes too and you
go out and buy the fridge bulb.

or the normal bulb does work, and when it finaly blows in 3 or 4 years time,
you cant find the 'spare' one so have to buy 2 more anyway.

personaly i'd just buy the fridge bulb and be done with it for the ammount
of times you have to change a fridge bulb.

gazz wrote:
"Stephen" wrote in message
...

I ask because I saw a pair of 15W pygmy bulbs for �2 in a supermarket
today and next to it one fridge bulb, which looked identical, for �2.

so you can buy a twin pack of normal bulbs, use one of them in the fridge,
if it dosent last long you can use the 'spare' untill that goes too and you
go out and buy the fridge bulb.

or the normal bulb does work, and when it finaly blows in 3 or 4 years time,
you cant find the 'spare' one so have to buy 2 more anyway.

personaly i'd just buy the fridge bulb and be done with it for the ammount
of times you have to change a fridge bulb.

Appliance lamps tend to run at lower filament temp, producing less
light and lasting much longer. But yes, cheaper ones do work ok, they
just dont last as well..


NT

wrote:
gazz wrote:
"Stephen" wrote in message
...

I ask because I saw a pair of 15W pygmy bulbs for �2 in a
supermarket today and next to it one fridge bulb, which looked
identical, for �2.

so you can buy a twin pack of normal bulbs, use one of them in the
fridge, if it dosent last long you can use the 'spare' untill that
goes too and you go out and buy the fridge bulb.

or the normal bulb does work, and when it finaly blows in 3 or 4
years time, you cant find the 'spare' one so have to buy 2 more
anyway.

personaly i'd just buy the fridge bulb and be done with it for the
ammount of times you have to change a fridge bulb.

Appliance lamps tend to run at lower filament temp, producing less
light and lasting much longer. But yes, cheaper ones do work ok, they
just dont last as well..


NT

Surely a 15W lamp is going to be running at the same temperature as any
other filament lamp at the same voltage?

If the "special appliance" lamp is also 15w, but produces less light, it
would throw out even more heat!?

Toby...

In article ,
"Toby" writes:

Surely a 15W lamp is going to be running at the same temperature as any
other filament lamp at the same voltage?

No, there's a range of temperatures filament lamps operate over.

If the "special appliance" lamp is also 15w, but produces less light, it
would throw out even more heat!?

A 15W mains filament lamp is so inefficient, that you can regard it
as generating 100% heat to a first approximation.

I've often thought that microwave ovens should simply have an
electrodeless fluorescent lamp inside for lighting, powered by
the microwaves. I expect the field intensity varies too much
depending on how much food is in there, and as it goes around
on the turn table, so it would just go up and down in intensity.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Toby" writes:

Surely a 15W lamp is going to be running at the same temperature as any
other filament lamp at the same voltage?

No, there's a range of temperatures filament lamps operate over.

If the "special appliance" lamp is also 15w, but produces less light, it
would throw out even more heat!?

A 15W mains filament lamp is so inefficient, that you can regard it
as generating 100% heat to a first approximation.

Surely, regardless of how efficient or otherwise it is at producing
light, the light ends up as heat anyway. So given a 15 watt lamp
*all* of the 15 watts ends up heating the room that the lamp is in
except for any light that escapes the room.

--
Chris Green