Incandescent bulb limiters

[lowell]

So being that these bulbs are extinct or damn near it, are y'll using Halogen in place of them for current limiting while troubleshooting shorts and blown fuses?

[SoulFetish]

.....are y'll using Halogen in place of them for current limiting while troubleshooting shorts and blown fuses?

No.
https://www.1000bulbs.com/category/i...t-light-bulbs/

[bob p]

I was at Lowes the other day and I saw several pallets of 100W incandescent bulbs. The problem is that the price was silly.
For a light bulb limiter you could also look for a 100W rough service bulb, like you'd use in a garage door opener.
I think those speciality bulbs are not extinct, but they jam you on the price.

Our days are numbered. Someday we'll all be using vitreous enamel resistors and meters instead of light bulbs.

[rjb]

I saw the writing on the wall & stocked up while I could.
Some dollar stores still had them in stock while hardware stores had cleared them from the shelves.
Let's see... here ya go. Still there.
https://www.dollartree.com/household...?method=search

[52 Bill]

And I suppose that you could parallel two sockets and use two smaller wattages to get to a higher value.

I still sometimes see 100 watt bulbs at my local Goodwill store, brand new in sealed packages.

[lowell]

Right on thanks y'all!

[olddawg]

I see tons of incandescent lamps at the dollar stores.... But they are weird wattages. 58 watts as opposed to 60 and such. The 100 watt similar was 96 watts I think. Strange days...

[loudthud]

You may be able to get the old funnel shaped spot lamps. Some are 150W.

[Justin Thomas]

Well, I wonder if the traditional wattages are stated in the legislation, so the odd numbers skirt this? Or if they're branded or excluded as some "special" use?

Anything to make a buck, right?

Justin

[nosaj]

I've been using a 40 watt for about 2 years, When it lights up then dims a little(filter caps charging up) Then the circuit is generally good and I move over to live power with an ammeter. I have mine mounted on the wall and the little bit of juice that runs through it I doubt I will ever burn it out.

nosaj

[Enzo]

Special use is things like heat lamps, rough service lamps, decorative lamps, etc. Much of that is still on the market.

Used to be a generic 100w bulb was like 30 cents. If they charge $3 for it now, well so what? How many do we need? We don;t usually burn them out using them as limiters. I do use rough service lamps in my drop lights. Because I learned early on if I drop my drop light, the bulb instantly dies unless it is a rough service type. I have to admit I now have a CFL in my drop lights. Bonus, it doesn;t get nearly as hot.


I use a variac and a meter, and have for decades.

I do have a few 100w in porcelain sockets, but they are mainly for testing dimmer packs.

[rjb]

I see tons of incandescent lamps at the dollar stores.... But they are weird wattages. 58 watts as opposed to 60 and such. The 100 watt similar was 96 watts I think. Strange days...

I guess it depends on where you live.
Dollar Tree near me still has 2-packs of 100W and 60W rough service frosted bulbs.
https://www.dollartree.com/search/go...w=bulb&cnt=300

[Enzo]

Places like that are getting their merchandise surplus. The industry is supposed to stop making the bulbs, but they are not required to smash the existing stock. So when Kmart moves on to the newer bulbs, old stock is sold off to places like that. Just like NOS tubes.

Rough service bulbs are among the ones excluded from the ban though. At least for now.

[Chuck H]

I agree that the expense of lamps for a "bulb limiter" isn't such a significant consideration for our purposes. Buy four at five bucks each and you have most of a lifetimes worth for a Jackson.?. Moving on...

How bad would it be if we ever have to use resistors and meters for current limiting and monitoring? You only need to make one and we make a few other bench tools already. This would be a step shy of the more professional use of a Variac. Which you also would only need to buy once. The advantages to the bulb is that you can monitor it peripherally while doing other things and it's cheap. But it's just not a deal breaker.

[J M Fahey]

The main point behind light bulbs is thatthey are not plain resistors but strong PTC ones.

They are relatively low resistance if everything´s fine so amp voltage measurements are reasonable but when things go bad they rise resistance by 10X ... no plain resistor does that.

Nichrome wire ones might, but they woukd need to reach bright white hot temperature.

Which woud make them burn (literally) with air oxygen, so they would need to be in vacuum or a low pressure neutral gas atmosphere.

That white hot surface is very dangerous and can start fires instantly, let alone burn operator´s flsh, so it wouk be wise to add some insukating surface around them .

Oh, I guess I just described a lightbulb ;

That said, these lamps do have a white hot tungstenn filament inside and can be used, electrond don´t care about the bottle shape surrounding the filament:













can't complain, huh?