You can't have looked very hard. Bayonet is still more common for things like pendant lamps. Of course if your hosts only had IKEA products they'll be ES. ;-)
Many desk lamps these days are low voltage, and these don't use ES fittings either.;-)
Dunno what you mean by lab equipment? Bayonets are only used for lighting.
In my experience both ES and BC holders each have their own disadvantages.
Poor quality BC holders often deform on the lugs. ES holders can be wired wrongly and make it very easy to get a shock when changing bulbs. ES holders are notorious for jamming.
Over all I'd say quality BCs are best. Cheap BCs are no better than ES holders.
I've never ever seen such problems with "proper" design cheap BC sockets. However an increasing number of lamps supplied from places that generally use ES fittings seem to have some very nasty looking non-standard design BC holders which I would not touch with the proverbial bargepole - even if it were wired for only 1.5volts! Perhaps it's these abominations of which you speak?
David
This is the first post to get this number of replies since I have been monitoring the group, can we have more posting from the UK please.
Regarding ES v BC, BC are the best overall for ease of replacement and safety, providing you buy a Uk made one and not a cheap import.
Bill B
i prefer ec type sometimes the bayonet type have a pronounced wobble when fitted and i'm not sure the contact made is thus a good one
Something's pretty fishy about this post, too!
Screw the bulb in then back it off 1/4 to 1/2 a turn.
sponix
Quite. You are posting upside down and not trimming. Therefore the context is unclear.
Christian McArdle explained :
Usually due to someone over tightening - Screw the lamp in just enough to provide adequate contact.
There is one situation where an ES fitting is clearly superior: Bulb subject to shocks and vibrations, like in a handheld inspection lamp.
The wobble of the BC fitting added to the shocks and vibrations wil reduce the life of the bulb to only a few days, if at all. With E fitting the bulb is more securely fastened to the lamp and will las much longer.
Antoni
-- asalcedo
Oh my God - please not again!
Run away and play little boy and don't waste bandwidth with irrelevant crap if you can't stay on-topic! The posting was factually incorrect but it WAS perfectly clear, although the manner of the posting may not comply with your own dogmatic Lillipution religious beliefs. Had I been posting that reply then I doubt that I would have trimmed very much either, since the referenced material was still relatively short and totally informative. Your effort in contrast has completely removed any indication of what it is that you are whining about and hence it is your pointless whinge in which the context is not just unclear but totally absent!
David (who doesn't give a damn which end of your egg you open!)
according to BS7671 you cannot wire a es fitting backwards as the live does not have to be wired to the center pin
Your copy of BS7671 would appear to be missing regulation 553-03-04. However, lampholders conforming to EN 60238 (both contacts only make connection just as lamp is fully screwed home, and the screw thread of the lampholder is not connected to either contact) are exempt.
It is also a PAT test failure to find an ES lampholder where the ES lampholder is connected the wrong way round.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember asalcedo saying something like:
The simple solution to that is to use 'rough service' bulbs. I find they last for months under general conditions of normal useage.
But doesn't the fact that the bulb is so rigidly fixed add to its failure? I would have thought that the wobble, you describe, would dampen the stress.
Dave
I look after dozens of both types of fitting (front of house) in a theatre with which I'm involved.
I have to say that I've had problems with most of the ES fittings; failed lamps jamming in the holders, flickering due to loose lamps and so on. By far the worst are those bakelite (?) holders which merely have a "spring" contact for the outer connection.
Yes, BC holders do have problems with sticking plungers, but that's usually because a lamp has been fitted with a "bulb" with too high a wattage for the fitting, and there are a few rubbish lampholders (mainly from a fairly well-known Leeds firm!).
Given the choice, I would go for BC. However, with most things like "track" lamps, there's only ES available :-(
Oddly enough, SES (E14) fittings don't give much trouble at all.
Hi Dave,
"Rough service bulbs", thank you for the tip. I will try them.
Antoni
-- asalcedo
I understand your point. The fact though is that the wobble is mor like a free rotation, like a pendulum, rather than a damper.
My thinking about it goes like this: even if you rest the inspectio lamp (bulb) carefully horizontally, just the weight of the bulb wil make it swing within the BC fitting. If the bulb was swung on the othe side this translates into a meaningful impact.
Let us say that there is no rotational friction in the bayonet, in thi case, the tip of the bulb falls (rotates) with close to a 1 aceleration.
When you rest the inspection lamp in normal working conditions yo don't drop it, perhaps 0.3g deceleration. Thus a BC bulb can get 1. deceleration versus only 0.3g for a ES bulb
-- asalcedo
No mains incandescent lamp will last long if it's likely to be dropped, etc. Although RS types are better, but give less light. Either use low voltage or fluorescent.
Yes, I see your point now. It did briefly cross my mind as I hit the send button, but the whisky slowed my fingers down, just enough not to stop me hitting the send button :-)
Dave
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required