Modernising old electrics fire with lights and not heating

I'm doubtful anything but getting them working would look at all realistic. AFAICS all they need is a better guard, and if they fail insulation perhaps the switches etc running thru the dishwasher.

I suppose there might be also the vague possibility of using long halogen elements instead.

NT

red and amber single colour 3528 LED strips, 5050 might be a bit intense.

Enclosed 12V PSU in the fire body.

The ceramic element support is not really conducive to something simpler like side or up lighting from a single bulb or tube.

So how about "neon string", eg:

and run several stings across in place of the elements?

Some sort of LED string using surface-mount LEDs in plastic tubing to replace the elements? You may have to add a circuit to dim them too. I can't see you getting anything standard.

Maybe replace the wire with

I don't know how bright they are.

I am almost certain that the same fire was in my parents bedroom when I was a kid. It would have been their since the house was built in

Like this one installed in a chimney breast.

Listen, I get very attached to old childhood memories, but there is no way on earth I would want this heap of junk back, the photo is quite enough thanks!

Another memory, above the fire a large ventilation hole had been made and a covered with a hardboard "wedge" feature in that 1950s style. Nothing to do with the heater of course, the vent was required by the building regs apparently, and the outside wall was a bay window do the easiest place was the (then) redundant chimney

If you did go the other route, stretching the element wire out & running it at ELV would be a lot more realistic than LEDs etc.

Why not just get a set of metal wire grilles made?

NT

I think that looks almost ideal. 2.4mm is a bit thick but from a distence it should look OK. I suspect it will be plenty bright enough and he'll need to under-run it.

In message , Graham. writes

Graham, are you sure I didn't just dictate that? I was born in '52, and we moved to a newly built house the following year. That fire is exactly the same as the one on the chimney breast in my parents' bedroom. It was an optional extra when the house was built, although I don't ever remember it being used, even in all the years before central heating was installed.

Another optional extra was a brick (rather than tiled) fireplace in the room below. As a toddler, I found a piece of chalk in the garden, and used it on the fireplace. Despite my mother's best efforts, the marks were still there when they sold the house thirty years later.

Wiring looks to be asbestos. Best chucked out and thoroughly vacuum cleaned. There's a good excuse.

How much is the customer willing to pay?

One way that will work and should be pretty convincing is to have a piece of Perspex rod 5mmm dia or better still 1mm threaded spiral cut. A decent lathe should have no trouble making it. Then epoxy a high brightness water clear orange LED to each end. The thing will need a small PSU to drive them ~ 6v at 250mA ought to be more than enough.

BTW is the rest of the house wiring of a similar antiquity to the fire?

You tend to be able to see the bright LED dies in a clear string.

Regards, Martin Brown

Sounds like her best efforts didn't include brick acid.

Like the water on the Bowes` Silver Swan automaton, there the twisted rods rotate:

Amber has a Vf of less than 3V and 5mm LED about 20mA still need a resistor in line with the LEDs.

Lametta or similar silver strips can be an effective diffuser.

EL string is really not bright, especially in red.

I cannot imagine too many young housewives were familiar with brick acid in 1955.

In article , News writes

Nah, she'd have used spirits of salt instead ;-)

Why bother? It's a seriously ugly fireplace and fire.

Philip

Memories of Dad's shed /workshop in the 60's with various green bottles one of which had that label on it, others contained various chemical cocktails for pest control,iodine and one held a few ounces of mercury. Some rusting tins with powders for treating sheep with sore asses etc . Doubt that we were unusual although none of my mates had the kudos of showing off a rusty Oxo tin containing a few sticks of Arctic gelignite manufactured in 1910 left from when a small quarry on the farm was still worked by Grandfather.

G.Harman

LCD TV and USB stick with images. Can be flipped to show a fish tank :)

Because in this case it is for a customer who is also a friend. Personally I would have had a look to see if there was any eBay value and if not then put on the pile of scrap;-)