INCANDESCENT LAMP BAN RULES

[WBear2GCR]

There is a policy implemented with rigid enforcement regarding incandescent bulbs.

THIS POLICY WILL NOT EFFECT BULBS USED IN HAM RADIO!!

(except as a dummy load)

Info:
"General service lamps do not include:
Appliance lamps
Black light lamps
Bug lamps
Colored lamps
G shape lamps with a diameter of 5 inches or more as defined in ANSI C79.1– 2002
General service fluorescent lamps
High intensity discharge lamps
Infrared lamps
J, JC, JCD, JCS, JCV, JCX, JD, JS, and JT shape lamps that do not have Edison screw bases
Lamps that have a wedge base or prefocus base
Left-hand thread lamps
Marine lamps
Marine signal service lamps
Mine service lamps
MR shape lamps that have a first number symbol equal to 16 as defined in ANSI C79.1–2002, operate at 12 volts, and have a lumen output greater than or equal to 800
Other fluorescent lamps
Plant light lamps
R20 short lamps
Reflector lamps that have a first number symbol less than 16 as defined in ANSI C79.1–2002 and that do not have E26/E24, E26d, E26/50x39, E26/53x39, E29/28, E29/53x39, E39, E39d, EP39, or EX39 bases
S shape or G shape lamps that have a first number symbol less than or equal to 12.5 as defined in ANSI C79.1–2002
Sign service lamps
Silver bowl lamps
Showcase lamps
Specialty MR lamps
T shape lamps that have a first number symbol less than or equal to 8 as defined in ANSI C79.1– 2002, nominal overall length less than 12 inches, and that are not compact fluorescent lamps
Traffic signal lamps
 
A general service incandescent lamp is defined as a standard incandescent or halogen type lamp that is intended for general service applications and:
Has a medium screw base.
Has a lumen range of not less than 310 lumens and not more than 2,600 lumens or, in the case of a modified spectrum lamp, not less than 232 lumens and not more than 1,950 lumens.
Is capable of being operated at a voltage range at least partially within 110 and 130 volts.
This definition does not apply to 22 lamp types."

[W3SLK]

At the 'Big Teal Hourglass' we were replacing motor indicator lamps, remote/manually air actuated valves and alarm panel lamps with LED's about 10 years ago. It was their 'green contribution' while they pushed out 'methylethylbadshit' emissions and what they recovered went to the 'Thermal Oxidizer Unit' (TOU or 100MBTU burner) out into the atmosphere.

[KD1SH]

Most of my workshop areas are lit by LED, but I still love my big 200 watt incandescents, and buy them whenever I find them.

[W1ITT]

I have gone to LEDs in many applications but I still like a good old incandescent here and there.  One type to watch for is the "traffic signal" rated bulb.  They come in 100 watt and similar sizes with the standard basing that we are all familiar with.  The nice difference is that they are rated at 130 volts.  At 120 volts they last forever...or as least as close to it as I have been able to get.
As an aside, I have a lamp made with one of the old 110 volt electrical meters.  They were common in rural areas before someone decided that 220 volts would allow Ma to have an electric stove to replace the Queen Atlantic wood burner in the kitchen.  The old meter has the dials and spinning disk, but the new LEDs and "curly fries" light bulbs don't draw enough current to spin it.  So I keep a good old incandescent in there and think back to good times when there was a tube tester in most every drug store.
73 de Norm W1ITT

[AL7FS]

What will be best for our dim bulb testers in the future.  de AL7FS

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Way back in the early 2000's, there was a push to phase out inefficient light bulbs, so the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 was created and signed into affect.

In fear, that I would have to live with the curly bulbs for house interior lighting going forward and I went out and bought several trays (4 six pack bulbs per tray) of 40, 60, 75, and 100 watt GE incandescent bulbs at dirt cheap prices. Since, LED bulb pricing has come way down and have proved to be more electricity cost efficient, for many uses, they can replace incandescent bulbs.

Maybe I'll start bringing  these GE bulbs to hamfests. Tag it: "The famous incandescent dummy load'

[W3SLK]

W1ITT said:

I have gone to LEDs in many applications but I still like a good old incandescent here and there.  One type to watch for is the "traffic signal" rated bulb.  They come in 100 watt and similar sizes with the standard basing that we are all familiar with.  The nice difference is that they are rated at 130 volts.  At 120 volts they last forever...or as least as close to it as I have been able to get.

Are you sure about that Norm? I always thought that LED's had a half-life similar to like an electro-luminescence panel. When the first 120V colored LEDs came out we went on a crusade at work and replaced all the 'blue' lamps used to signify our safety showers to LEDs. What happened was the bulbs would overheat in a Class1 Div1 enclosure. The LED's worked but lasted only ~5 years. The last one I replaced was in service for 10 years and I was told it was burned out. When I went to replace, (what I thought was a bulb), I found it was one of the original LED's and it was barely visible. We ended up using 'party' CFLs. They weren't as expensive and were about the same wattage.

[W1ITT]

Mike...  My comment on bulb longevity was in reference to the incandescent bulbs that are 130 volt-rated.  A few years ago, Home Desperate sold them in bulk packs.  At 120 volts or so I have yet to lose one.  The absolute best I have encountered are bulbs that used to be common as side marker lights on radio towers.  They are clear thick glass, again 130 volt rated.  Once, to test ruggedness, I took one 100 feet up the tower and tossed it onto the gravel driveway.  Both envelope and filament survived.  I have a couple of those  that have served as porch lights for over 45 years.  I didn't comment on LED life as I only recently put in a few.
73 de Norm W1ITT

[W3SLK]

W1ITT said:

Mike...  My comment on bulb longevity was in reference to the incandescent bulbs that are 130 volt-rated.  A few years ago, Home Desperate sold them in bulk packs.  At 120 volts or so I have yet to lose one.  The absolute best I have encountered are bulbs that used to be common as side marker lights on radio towers.  They are clear thick glass, again 130 volt rated.  Once, to test ruggedness, I took one 100 feet up the tower and tossed it onto the gravel driveway.  Both envelope and filament survived.  I have a couple of those  that have served as porch lights for over 45 years.  I didn't comment on LED life as I only recently put in a few.

FBOM Norm! Those ones you dropped wouldn't be the ~75W halogens? The glass envelope on them are extremely thick and they do tend to last a long time even at rated voltage. I was just commenting about the aspect of half-life in LED lamps. I don't think people take that into consideration however if they get 5~8 years service out of one they, (as I) will happily buy another. Of course there is always this incandescent: https://blog.adafruit.com/2017/11/29/115-years-and-counting-watch-the-webcam-watching-the-worlds-longest-burning-bulb/

[W1RKW]

I converted to CFLs back in the early 2000s when the electric company was requesting their customers to switch to more efficient lighting because with computers and many other things coming online was stressing the grid here in CT.  I of course made that conversion and saw a significant decrease in KWhr usage.  Nice, I thought to myself. Electric company was losing money so they jacked up their rates to compensate for $ loss. CFLs were a bit more than the standard incandescent bulb but we offset some cost through the electric bill for a while.  Then along came LED bulbs. I did the same thing because the CFL life span was horrible and I figured them to be a fire hazard when they melt down and fail.  Now there's a HAZMAT issue with disposal.  I kept all my incandescents. In fact, bought more when the ban came along.  I swap out some LEDs to incandscents in certain rooms when winter comes along.  They produce heat. If I can keep my boiler from running more than it needs to then it's FBOM.  Home Despot LEDs are now dropping like flies.  Came across a thrift shop that had cases of LED bulbs $1.99  per.  They've been very reliable thus far.

[WD4DMZ]

Standard flourescents, cfls and LED bulbs all have some flicker so I mix them up in each room and usually have an incandescent bulb on as well to soften the light. Also love the old 200W and 50/200/250 3 way bulbs. Really getting hard to find.

Rich

[WD4DMZ]

Years ago I acquired a vintage GE lamp like the one in the pic above. Not very bright but the filament is so thick I suspect it will last forever. I worked for GE for almost 30 years and back in 1978 they ran a batch of the lamps on original manufacturing equipment to distribute for the 100th anniversary of the company and I was fortunate to get one. So, mine is not an original from 1880 but supposedly built on the same machinery.

People do not know this but back in the early Edison era a consumer only got one bulb. If it burned out you needed to return it to get another one.

Rich

[KD6VXI]

What will be best for our dim bulb testers in the future.  de AL7FS

Screw in heater elements.

Henry uses them in their step start on a lot of amps and rf generators.

Just Edison based wirewoind resistors.

--Shane
WP2ASS / ex KD6VXI

[WBear2GCR]

Not generally appreciated, but both CFLs and LED bulbs when looked at with a spectrum analyzer put out
strictly 3 monochrome colors: red, green, and blue!!

That's due to the use of rare earth phosphors.

(which if they were so darn expensive and difficult to get, you would think they would recycle??)

Whereas incandescent bulbs are actually "full spectrum" to the extent that there are no individual bands of colors.

Which in part is why these modern bulbs "don't look quite right"!!
BAH!

                                 _-_-bear

[Opcom]

Was the vendor mistaken about this lamp, that it is among the banned? I stocked up because they were cheap anyway.

EIKO 6S6/130V 130V 6W S-6 Candelabra Base

https://www.lightingsupply.com/search?q=EIKO+6S6%2F130V+130V+6W+S-6+Candelabra+Base&x=0&y=0

This kind is used in the 1" diameter pilot lamp fixtures found on real transmitters.

[AG4ME]

Yes, just about all the LED bulbs I bought have burned out,
in a short time.
I break them open and found the power supply is the problem.
I save the heat sink disc with the LED's on it.
some run on 42 VDC and I can test them.   I plan on putting a few
in series, with a simple supply that will last.  for out in my shed/garage.

I had two green LED bulbs, the kind that look like a filament,
on my front porch fixture.   they burned out in less than a year.
Feit Electric will replace them, if I pay postage and send them back
with a receipt.   

You are not supposed to put LED bulbs in an enclosed
fixture due to a little heat buildup will destroy them.
But some company makes them with a better hear sink.

these LED "bulbs" are way over-rated!!!!!

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I installed a 60 watt Sylvania LED lamp in my friend's porch light 3 or 4 years ago. It automatically turns on at dusk and goes off at dawn. It still works fine. I bought a six pack of these lamps for $2.99. I bought one of those flickering candle-type LED lamps for my outside pole light. It's also been working fine for the last several years.

I have no complaints with LED lamps. I can use a brighter LED lamp for these tired old eyes and still save money on electricity.

[Opcom]

I like LED lighting for the same reasons as Pete. I'm very happy to have it.

The 2 or 3 I took apart had overheated LEDs on them. The 'board' was also a heatsink being an aluminum disk with a PCB built onto it making it all one piece: a traditionally green insulating layer on the aluminum, then copper on that.

Something I'd forgotten is the heat that incandescent lamps dump into the air conditioning load. It's non trivial if many are in use. 1000W each hour is 3400 BTUs. = 0.283 ton.

Replaced the 10 Watt appliance lamp in the dryer with a candelabra base LED bulb that consumes 3 Watts so it's way easier to see in there now.

[WD4DMZ]

Over time I have replaced most of my lamps with LEDs, but not all. To get a good warm color balance I mix in a few of the old bulbs, which I have a stash of.

For my boatanchor radios I am slowly replacing the old #47 with LEDs. Boy, do the old yellowed dials come alive! The bulbs on Amazon are less than a $1 in most cases. Get the ones that are polarity independent in case you put one in a DC circuit. If you use them in a 12V circuit they will fail quickly so do not put them in your car's tail light etc. unless specified for 12V.

As far as life goes, a few have failed in less than a year but most are in for years. I replaced hard to reach floods in my back yard and not only do they last a long time they use about 20% of the energy so I leave them on all night. If you use them with a sensor be sure to get the ones rated for use with a dimmer of they flash on/off around dusk.

I have tried replacing long flourescent bulbs with LED equivalents with mixed results. Some do not like ballasts or starter circuits and I had one literally smoke on power-up. In those applications I have stuck with the standard bulbs.

Rich

[K8DI]

LED bulbs are great, unless/until they’re not.  I have a bunch in fixtures thru out the house…but the really bright 200w equivalents from Amazon take out FM broadcast reception, kill off 2m simplex, and reduce the range of my garage door opener to ten feet.  Forget about my idea of putting them in the shack to see into the dark corners…

Topic swerve…if there’s any ONE thing I would want from the FCC it would be enforcing part 15/unintentional radiators regs….

Ed

[W1RKW]

I bought a 4 of these last year for my garage:  
https://www.superbrightleds.com/catalog/product/view/id/213086/s/100w-led-garage-light-175w-mh-equivalent-e26-e27-medium-screw-base-ballast-bypass-12-000-lumens-5000k/category/2/

They light up my garage/shop better than anything I've had before and they are RFI quiet.  My only complaint about them is the 1 second turn-on delay but I've gotten used to that. I've wondered if I should apply sun screen  . I highly recommend them if you want bright and RFI quiet LED lights.

There is a higher output equivalent for another $10 or $15 per unit. Don't know if they are RFI quiet.