Fender Twin blowing fuses

[Enzo]

And then the forces in charge come through and demand you replace those incandescents with CFLs.....

[Albert Kreuzer]

Ouch.
Nothing to joke about.

What about these -> ?

[Phostenix]

And then the forces in charge come through and demand you replace those incandescents with CFLs.....

Maybe Line 6 can come up with a digitally modelled incandescent bulb for use in vintage light bulb limiters.

[Phostenix]

What about these -> ?

They should be replaced with LED bulbs.

[R.G.]

And then the forces in charge come through and demand you replace those incandescents with CFLs.....

It ain't the light bulbs that scare me.

Once the forces in charge get done with light bulbs, they will turn their attention to critically important issues like:
- Time of day limits on electrical usage (eliminates peaks, saves on building new electrical facilities, and thereby lowers the overall pollution and "waste") leading to total electrical consumption limits, with stiff fines, taxes and perhaps "environmental crimes" prosecutions.
- Start with MPG minimums on autos, then yearly mileage limits imposed as "overtraveling taxes", then air travel limitations, perhaps as applications for "business/government travel licenses".
- Excess calorie consumption taxes/limits, enforced by height/weight data gleaned from "free" universal health care.
- Food-type regulation - you know, cattle eat vegetation and convert part of that vegetation to food, but they also excrete significant quantities of methane, a known greenhouse gas. Cattle raising amounts to an environmental pollution crime in that sense.
- Back at limitations, agriculture in general requires fuel, fertilizer, and other items that are known degraders of the environment, including simply the monopolization of land area which would otherwise support native animals and plants; extinction by habitat loss could easily become either a licensed activity with civil and criminal penalties for violations.
- Hmm... matter of fact, just living space for humans does the same thing, excludes area from the natural environment, so we really do need to put some kind of limits on how many square feet each person gets to live in. Consistent with government standards for living quality, of course.
- Distance-from-work regulations, requiring living within walking distance from employment or proof of work-at-home status provided by approved employers. This may be coupled with a no-car-owned tax credit. Of course, this also makes the, um, fair distribution of living space to workers much more simple to administer.

Lessee... water! We can't let that be wasted! Toilets have been regulated as to the amount per flush for quite a while now, but now we have the technology to count individual flushes, and send that data with time-of-day electrical usage.

Man! It's going to take a lot of governmental action to get things sorted out fairly and equitably so that vicious, selfish, greedy people don't ruin the entire planet simply because they have worked hard and (probably conspiratorially!) managed to save/produce excess wealth which they then deny, dog-in-the-manger style, to everyone else. Fortunately, the government will be able to hire many of us to implement the fair distribution of stuff since the new taxes will provide the means for the government to help us help ourselves follow the rules.

[Enzo]

Wow, does all that still fit in a limiter?

[Prairie Dawg]

It ain't the light bulbs that scare me.

Once the forces in charge get done with light bulbs, they will turn their attention to critically important issues like:

Peace out, brother. The sky is not falling.

[Steve Conner]

The world's always been about to end. Relax.

[Enzo]

yeah, but now there is a whole movie out to show us what wil happen in 2012. They couldn;t make a movie of it if it weren't true...

[trem]

Regards the limiter....
I made one and have used it several times. After reading some of the info here, I wonder if I am really capturing its full potential. Mine has a 71 watt bulb. Is there a link that would explain the theory(ies) of using different wattage bulbs, or anything else relating to the use of a bulb limiter?
Thank You

[R.G.]

Regards the limiter....
I made one and have used it several times. After reading some of the info here, I wonder if I am really capturing its full potential. Mine has a 71 watt bulb. Is there a link that would explain the theory(ies) of using different wattage bulbs, or anything else relating to the use of a bulb limiter?
Thank You

Incandescent bulbs are a wire which has some resistance. The resistance increases with temperature. When you put a voltage across the bulb, the wire heats until its resistance increases enough to prevent the current from increasing any more.

The full-voltage current when it's heated up is easy to calculate from the wattage. A 100W bulb with 120V across it is pulling 100W/120V = 0.833Arms, for instance. A 25W bulb is pulling 1/4 of that, or about 0.208Arms. If you put some other load in series with the bulb, the bulb will let the other load have a significant current at first when the filament is cold, then will limit that current as the bulb's filament heats up, which happens in a few AC cycles. So you get a start up for the device connected in series, and then the bulb resistance comes up. If the device doesn't need too much idling current compared to the bulb, the bulb will remain dim, letting the device in series have almost its normal voltage.

But if there is something wrong with the device in series, something where it tries to act like a short on its power supply, the bulb will get brighter and limit the line current to less than its full load current. If that is below the normal currrent rating of the device fuse... then the device fuse will not pop, and you can probe the device under test while it's being limited by the bulb. You can do this without putting in fuse after fuse after fuse after fuse after fuse. And you get a chance to see what has voltage across it and is therefore not shorted, versus what has no voltage across it and may be shorted.

You get to adjust the max current by selecting the limiting bulb wattage.

Howzat? What did I muddy up rather than clarifying?

[trem]

Thanks R.G.
You continue to be a fountain of information (if not a fountain of youth ).

[R.G.]

Thanks R.G.
You continue to be a fountain of information (if not a fountain of youth ).

Yeah, I've about given up on that youth thing.

[R.G.]

Peace out, brother. The sky is not falling.

I agree, the sky is not falling. However, it is being regulated. Here's a quote from Fox News' Phil Kerpen.

Today the EPA declared greenhouse gases a danger to public health.
...
that ruling was about motor-vehicle regulation. The EPA decision today, judging by their proposed regulations, goes far beyond that.

Not only would motor vehicles be regulated, so would light-duty trucks, heavy-duty trucks, buses, motorcycles, planes, trains, ships, boats, tractors, mining equipment, RVs, lawn mowers, fork lifts, and just about everything that has a motor. Because there is no control technology for greenhouse gases, the EPA would require complete redesigns and operational changes.

They would also require permitting for businesses and structures that emit as little as 250 tons of greenhouse gases per year. That threshold may make sense for some air pollutants. But for carbon dioxide it’s frighteningly low, and would subject millions of never-before-regulated entities to an expensive and lengthy EPA permitting process. Any building over 100,000 square feet would be pulled in, as would numerous smaller buildings that produce carbon dioxide. Small businesses, restaurants, schools, and hospitals that have commercial kitchens with gas burners would all be affected.

It looks like I was being overly optimistic about when the regulation would start.

Hmmm... I read somewhere that humans breathe out carbon dioxide.