I notice in all the stores around me that a 150 watt bulb costs as much as 4 100 watt bulbs. The cost of manufacturing the 150 cannot be that much more than a 100 watt. Must be the cardboard package that makes the difference. Mr. Bell is probably turning in his grave over this consumer rip-off.
Sherwin D.
Is the 150 a 3-way bulb? Has two filaments. Also lower sales volume.
Was the inventor of the telephone a prolific light bulb price watcher as well?
Why would Bell turn over in his grave? He didn't invent the lightbulb.
150's cost more because nobody buys them.
Hmmm, I thought Edison invented the bulb?
I agree; Edison an American is the acknowledged light bulb inventor. But as with the 'invention' of television, by Baird in Britain it was later claimed by others, including Russia. The 'invention' and use of radar; originally called 'Radiolocation', by the British in 1939 (Battle of Britain etc.) Then invention of the radar magnetron, now used in microwave ovens, by Watson-Watt a Scotsman and so on! Alexander Graham Bell, another Scotsman who emigrated to Canada is credited with 'invention' of the voice telephone.
Why would Alexander Bell care? He's dead and doesn't have to pay the price. Besides, it wasn't his baby anyhow... light bulbs were invented by Thomas Edison.
When I asked at my local grocery one day why it was [much] cheaper to buy 2 32oz mayos than it was to buy one 64oz the manager explained that it is all computerized & the computer calculates how long something sits on the shelf when it determines the markup. 'Look at it like the product is paying rent for shelf space' he said.
The markup is much lower on items that turn over rapidly. [like 1 qt mayo, and 100watt lightbulbs]
In some cases as it goes unchecked it gets rediculous. The 32oz mayo almost got to the same price as the 64 as fewer and fewer prople bought the overpriced 64oz.
Jim
Why not buy a 150watt output screw in florescent and forget about buying another bulb for this lamp for up to 10 years? It takes MUCH less power to operate, generates MUCH less heat, and only costs less than twice the price of the 150W bulb (seeing them now for under $10 including those that rival incandescent lamps for pleasant color - 5000 Kelvin color temp) Lifetimes on compact florescent bulbs are ranging, depending on brand from 7,000 operating hours to as much as 15,000 operating hours
BTW compact screw ins are available up to 150W input, 650W light output. The closer the bulb gets to 6500 Kelvin color temp, the happier you will be with this long term. 6500 Kelvin is very very close to pure, stark white (overhead sun on cloudless, pollution free day)
Local stores carry a good selection, but for the broadest range of choices, do a Google search for light bulbs. I picked
Price of a standard base 7 1/2 W I just bought was $2.49, same as 4 60s; for the same reasons given here previously: low volume.
Marty
Nope - Edison was the first to make a market viable light bulb and patent it. Edison actually followed several other inventors of light bulbs. Edison's contribution was a longer lasting version, an improvement on what was available at the time. See
Besides the shelf life issue mentioned earlier, a rep from Philips bulbs explained that the cost of tooling up the equipment at the manufacturing plant also represents a higher cost against the lower volume selling lamps.
Imagine the following, (this is just an example no factual numbers included). If it costs $50,000 to set-up the equipment and then produce 500 bulbs the cost would be higher than if you had the same cost to set-up and you produced 5000 or 50000.
That was how it was explained to me.
Hope that is useful info for someone.
There are a lot of things which go into the retail price of an item *other* than the cost of the materials used to make that item.
In some cases, the cost of the item itself may be very little. And the bulk of the cost may be packaging/distribution. So you may have...
Cost of materials. Say 5 cents. Cost of manufacturing. Say 5 cents. Cost of packaging. Say 50 cents per package. Cost of distribution. Say 40 cents per package.
And if they are packaging and distributing 4 items per package or only 1 item per package, the costs would be pretty much the same.
So it is a good idea to buy products in bulk. The per item cost is lower.
Then advertising. Look at cereal at the grocery store. Name brand vs generic. In some cases the generic cereal may be the same exact product as the name brand - made by the same company. However the name brand has all those advertising costs tacked on to the price of each item.
Go to a farm supply and look at the cost for food for animals. Say oats. Very little cost per ounce for a 50 pound bag.
Then go to a printing company and ask how much it would cost to print up colored packaging like a cereal box. It costs a young fortune!
Sherwin,
Mr.Bell- telephone Mr. Edison- Light bulb
Dave M.
No time right now to look at the url, but Edison invented the carbon filament, from oxidised cotton thread.
Who invented the tungsten filament?
Because it's dark in there.
Exactly. He's trying to read about who did.
Definitely. Remember the words, "Watson, why is it so dark in here. Can't we afford more light bulbs?"
See my other post.
Mayo lasts a long time.
But I have to ask myself, should I buy a gallon of milk at a time or a half gallon? IIRC, if I drink 80% of the gallon before the milk spoils**, I won't have wasted money, but if I have to throw away the rest, I have wasted milk.
**Normally I can drink a gallon before it spoils, but if my tastes change for a week, for example, I may not.BTW, milk is good much longer than it smells good in the plastic bottle. When the milk is more than a week old, say, I sniff the bottle and it sometimes smells sour. But if it isn't two weeks old, almost always when I pour myself a glass, it smells and tastes perfect. It must be that there is a light coat of milk on the inside of the bottle or carton, that spoils early, because it is exposed to the air all that time.
Also, on occasion, I've left a bottle out all night. That's not enough to ruin milk these days***, and one still has a day or two to drink what is left in the bottle. My experience is that gallon bottles last longer than half gallons when left out, because it takes longer to warm maybe.
***More consistent refrigeration. Good stores don't leave the milk on the loading dock for hours like used to be the case a lot, and still is some places. They get it out of the refrigerated truck and into their own refrigerator before it warms up, and there is probably better care at the dairy too. Milk can last 3 weeks in your refrigerator. Time before the bottle is opened counts as half, sort of like spaghetti sauce. Spaghetti sauce lasts in the jar much longer if one opens the lid and quickly pours out the sauce, before many mold spores can fall into the jar.
I noticed that too a while back, and having reached an age where I need more light to read by than I did years ago, I just picked up a few "Y" adaptors and use two 75 watters in place of a single 150 watt bulb in our end table and nightstand lamps.
That also has the advantage that when one bulb burns out I don't completely lose the use of that lamp.
I gave up on buying those pricey 3-way bulbs over 10 years ago and getting pissed off when one of the two filaments burned out. I installed "touch dimmers" in those lamps. Much easier to use than fumbling for the switch, and I get all the functionality of a 3-way bulb.
Jeff (I'm not cheap, I'm "value oriented.")
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