I have a desk lamp of the "brave little toaster" style which says to use a 60W bulb.
Inside the light, it 'says' 60 watts.
How much do you think 125% over the maximum matters?
You will know the answer when the fixture bursts into flame or your house burns down which ever comes first.
Get a CFL or LED for _more_ light, less heat.
In my experience, the LEDs are (still) too expensive, and I tried and failed with the CFLs.
The main problem with the CFLs is they stick out too far (for any decent wattage) so, what happens is that they blind you because you end up seeing the bright bulb outside the shield.
Also, that tip of the CFL sticking out tends to break off as these are desk lamps that are moved about.
I wonder if they make a high light output small length CFL?
When you factor in the cost of operation, LEDs are cheaper than incandescents.
The type of bulb you are using is probably not giving the light the way you want it. Use a plain incandescent and it will diffuse more rather than hit a localized spot.
Better is to buy a new desk light with a flat fluorescent bulb. Mine is four short tubes and gives a nice white bright light. I think mine was about $25.
75 watt incandescent bulbs were banned on January 1 of this year. If this is what you're using, you are in violation of the law. Since you posted this to a public newsgroup, your local law officers as well as the FBI know what you're doing. You will likely be arrested in the next 24 hours. The penalty is something like $5000 and 30 days in prison. YOU'RE IN BIG TROUBLE!
Install a 75W equivalant CFL bulb and the heat wont be a problem, and you will be legal. You can even use a 100W equivalant CFL. (Then get rid of those 75W incandescent bulbs before the cops arrive.)
Joe Mastroianni wrote in news:kdt6qn$t60$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
A lot. When we bought our current home, I had to replace all of the light fixtures in the kitchen because the previous owners had done exactly that: put 75W bulbs in fixtures that were labeled "60W max". When I took the fixtures down to paint the ceiling, I discovered that the excess heat had made the insulation on the fixture wires brittle and hard to the point of cracking and falling off of the conductors. One fixture had an inch and a half of uninsulated wire.
Maybe I do need to go back to the plain old-style 100W tungsten bulb.
This is what the CFL looks like (see how it sticks out).
Front view:
That's odd. Today I bought the 75 Watt flood you see in the 1st picture. Along with 90W (larger) floods (which were too big for this lamp). And, at the same Home Depot, I saw 200 Watt long-necked incandescent bulbs, and 150Watt 3-way incandescent bulbs for sale ...
So, they 'might' be banned - but they're certainly still being sold.
fixtures in the kitchen
discovered that the
the point of
of uninsulated
How did you fix that? Just curious.
I've run across many like that, and I always tried to replace the whole cable. But thats not always possible without ripping apart the whole house. Other times I had to put an extra box inh the attic and run a few feet of new wire. I've seen lots of guys just tape up those cracked wires, but that's not the best fix. I found another method. Put heat shrink tubing ovet the wires. That works wonders and is easy to do. However if it's the old BX and the wires are cracked right up to the metal sheath, you will likely have problems. You're stuck replacing them.
*I have seen many overheated light fixtures over the years. Most of them don't start a fire unless they are in close proximity to combustible materials such as curtains or furniture. What usually happens over time is the lamp socket get brittle and cracks, the insulation on the wire gets brittle and cracks and eventually sparks fly out and then I get a call.
The 75 watt bulb that you have in the light looks as though it might be a halogen bulb which gets very hot. I would try a 50 watt PAR 20 bulb. It is a small halogen floodlight (Actually they come in flood or spot) and puts out about the same amount of light as a 75 watt incandescent bulb.
I bet somewhere in my home, I have one so better come and get me. But please bring food and a Latte' when you come so I can eat and drink well before I go into the slammer.
May we see some figures, and cost projections, please?
I got a couple LED flood lights off Ebay, which were very disappointing. There are some which do a good job. At church they have put in some LED flood lights, the guy tells me they cost $40 or so per bulb, but they sure do a good job of lighting.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
When you factor in the cost of operation, LEDs are cheaper than incandescents.
An oversize bulb in a lamp in Mrs. O'Leary's barn is what caused the Great Chicago Fire.
The big leap of faith is that you have to believe they are going to last decades in the typical application to recover the upfront cost. Given my experiences with CFL, I have good reason to doubt the longevity. If they crap out in two years, you're a big loser.
If the desk lamp also has a UL or CSA sticker, then a 60 watt bulb was used to test and approve the fixture for electrical and fire safety. Using a 75 watt bulb voids that listing. If you were to have a fire that was traced to the desk lamp and if the fire inspector determined that you had over-wattaged the lamp, then your fire insurance could be disallowed. That's not very likely, of course, but it has happened. As others have mentioned, using a 50 watt halogen PAR 20 might work for you as will using a CFL or LED bulb, but compare the light output values (lumens). Don't go just by the "wattage equivalent" charts.
Tomsic
Only the common 100 watt and the 75 watt household bulbs (as of 1/1/13) are being phased out so far and both, of course, have lower-wattage replacements. The 100 watt replacement is rated for 72 watts and they've been on retails shelves for a couple of years now. The 200 watt and 150 watt 3-way bulbs that you see are not being phased out. They're in an "exempt" category which includes decorative, colored and other types which are not widely used. There's not much energy to be saved by regulating them and so they are not affected by the bulb legislation. There was an "unintended consequence" to the bulb phase-out legislation. Bulb choices for consumers actually increased in 2012 and prices of some types (such as CFLs) came down substantially as bulb manufacturers cranked up their competitive product offerings.
Tomsic
I found this one on a web search:
I know nothing about this web site but if the bulb is made by Westinghouse, you can probably find it at many vendors.
What makes incandescent bulbs wear out? Oxidation of the filament, right?
What makes CFL bulbs wear out? Oxidation of the mercury inside?
What makes LED bulbs wear out? (something must be wearing out or they'd last forever)
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