Archive through April 15, 2002
The ClubHouse: Archives: I have a dumb question:
Archive through April 15, 2002
Juju2bigdog | Sunday, April 14, 2002 - 05:38 pm     Thanks for the messages so far. Car, I actually had some of those curly bulbs that I bought at Costco for an arm and a leg. I tried one of them in the overhead where I am right now typing away. This room is kind of poorly lit anyway, as are all of the bedrooms. The 100 watt bulb I have in there right now is barely adequate. The equivalent 100 watt of the curly bulbs did not put out as many lumens as the incandescent, making a poor situation even dimmer. I returned the bulbs for a refund. Buttercup, my money is on Weinermr too. Labmouse, thanks for the war story. LOL. Fruitbat, I got the garlic on the door. Thanks for the tip. Car54, I already have the entire house lined with tinfoil to keep out the deadly gamma rays from outer space. Fruitbat, I have super-glued green sponges to the bottoms of all my shoes and slippers. Thanks for saving my life. Lobster, thanks to your brother and to you for asking him. Bigdog says the house has not been rewired and it is not knob and tube. House was built in 1971, not rewired since then. He will test the voltage going through the fixture. He gave a nod to the possibility of too many things on one circuit and muttered something about getting around to doing that one day (I think he means changing out the circuit breaker box) and then he wandered off. |
Car54 | Sunday, April 14, 2002 - 05:49 pm     Well the only hope is to fly Lobster's brother out to take a look. Do they make those miner hats with lights on the front for dogs? |
Teatime | Sunday, April 14, 2002 - 05:58 pm     Juju, Mr. Tea says in a house built in 1971 there's a good chance it's aluminum wiring instead of copper. Aluminum wiring heats and shrinks, making connections loose, so should be replaced if it's found...so, another vote to check with an electrician. Our house was built in the 1870's, when we got in here we decided the wiring was surely done by Thomas Alva Edison himself, as a high school science fair project!! It wasn't pretty. Good luck Juju. Ahhh...the pleasures of home ownership... |
Juju2bigdog | Sunday, April 14, 2002 - 08:02 pm     Yep, Teatime, we had aluminum wiring in our house in Houston, same vintage. This one has already been checked for that. |
Tess | Sunday, April 14, 2002 - 11:43 pm     Juju, does that mean you only have one arm and one leg left or did they return the others when you returned the bulbs? Just wondering. If Weiner doesn't know, I could ask Charlie. He's home now. |
Weinermr | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 04:39 am     Juju and gang, First of all, your faith in my abilities is very touching and I thank you all very much. Second of all, when today (Monday the 15th) is over I'll have worked 15 straight very intense days, and 21 out of the last 22 days, all with very little sleep, and 3 months of 6 very long days a week, so you'll excuse me if my brain is as fried as Juju's wiring might be. You'll excuse my sentence structure as well, I hope. Theoretically, if all your lighting fixtures, your wiring, and your light bulbs were identical, then the bulbs would all last the same amount of time. The life of a bulb, however, IS affected by such things as the wiring, the fixture, etc. Different lengths of wiring between fixtures, or between switch and fixture, or between circuit breaker and switch and fixture, can be in different conditions. One wire may be more worn than another, have more or less resistance, carry more or less current. Less resistance means more current, which means the bulb will have a shorter life. One particular fixture may be situated in such a way that it is at a higher temperature than the other fixtures, and this too will cause the bulb in it to have a shorter life (kind of like I feel right now). All these things can affect the life of your bulbs. I too have noticed that certain lamps seem to need light bulb replacement more often than others, or one fixture in the ceiling causes bulbs to burn out quicker than others. Not to jinx myself, but there are certain light bulbs in our house that have not been replaced once in the 11 1/2 years we have lived here, and there are others that are replaced all the time. Juju, I admire your discipline in timing the life of your bulbs, because while empirically I know that certain bulbs do not last as long as they should, I have never really documented their life span in a formal way. Frankly, it's probably cheaper to change the light bulb every couple months when it burns out than it is to undergo some kind of rewiring project, unless there is a problem with circuit breakers tripping, or the wiring is overheating, or if you can smell insulation burning, etc. OK, I'm done now. I'm going to get an hour or so more sleep before I'm off to work on the 15th, finish my final tasks, and run off to happy hour with the gang to celebrate the end of tax season. Then I have the day off on the 16th and will finally be able to catch up at home, and here too. I've really missed all of you. Now I'm getting teary eyed, so I know it's time to go. Good luck Juju...... and welcome home Tess.... I missed your whole trip (alas). I'll have to read all about it on Tuesday. |
Buttercup | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 06:01 am     Told ya'! Show me da money! Weinermr  |
Fruitbat | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 06:14 am     $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Welcome back Weiner. |
Twiggyish | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 06:35 am     Welcome back music man!  |
Car54 | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 08:18 am     Juju, you need a consult with Ms Bat and I on supplemental task lighting. We are actually working on finding the best sources for beautiful lamps, so I think we can help you out! I was thinking... you said you use 100 watt lights... I have never had an overhead fixture that lets me use more than a 75. Does the little thingie that you screw the lightbulb into have the little sticker that tells you the max wattage to use? |
Fruitbat | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 08:55 am     The only place I have overhead lighting is in the kitchen. I don't like that atmosphere in other rooms. I have many lamps and love the warmth they give. FYI the green sponges have to be on your head, you silly dog. |
Juju2bigdog | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 10:12 am     Hahahahaha, I KNEW I could smoke him out. Yay, Weinermr. Weinermr LIVES!! (tosses fistfuls of bills at Buttercup, snatches a couple back to buy lightbulbs) Car, don't know about the sticker. It would be 31 years old if there is one up there. Think we have had 75 watt bulbs in there too. Well, Weinermr, I wasn't specifically setting out to quantify the light bulb life, but as I was replacing it, the package was empty, so I brought it with me to throw away, which caused me to read the package, and it said 750 hours. So I then went back and looked at some other bulbs I had bought, and they are long life of about 1125 hours, and I contemplated using one of those instead, which caused me to reflect just how long 750 hours is, which made me then calculate that if we burned the light three hours a day for a month, that would be 90 hours, and therefore the bulb should be lasting 8 months, and not one month, and then I must have carried the train of thought over to here and typed it in, which caused me to engage in run-on sentences, and that is almost the whole story. By the way, this was just an idle curiosity question, not a burn down the house question. I do usually leave these things to Bigdog. I mean that is why one keeps men around, right? Thanks a million, Weinermr. Get some rest. We miss you badly.
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Juju2bigdog | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 10:26 am     Uhhhhhh ... Fruitbat, I knew the sponge was suposed to be on my head <surveys the long row of shoes and slippers with green sponges super-glued to the bottoms>
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Buttercup | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 10:35 am      |
Car54 | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 10:36 am     Me too, Bat.... I never use my overhead lights. I also use colored lights (usually a lovely flattering pink) in some rooms to create a mood. I think Juju needs some hanging sconces and decorator lamps. All my ceiling lights say either 60 watt or 75 watt maximum. 100 might be causing it to burn out faster. See, I knew we could turn this electrical problem into a decorating issue! Juju, you can clean the floor with your new sponge-bottom slippers.... call them swiffer-shoes! |
Fruitbat | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 02:12 pm     Yeah, nice cover Juju but I am not buyin' it. Yes Car, meet you in Plottin' and Plannin' for a redo of Rotu. They need to make a rake and put designs in the sand for starters. |
Car54 | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 02:27 pm     What? |
Moondance | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 02:29 pm     Don't ask Car, just shake your head and agree |
Car54 | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 02:31 pm     ok |
Fruitbat | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 03:05 pm     Their sand is messy. They need cleaner lines. More order to create a calm, soothing enviorment. |
Moondance | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 03:06 pm     ok |
Car54 | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 03:18 pm     and how does that relate to light bulbs? |
Fruitbat | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 03:24 pm     Car? Did you see Moon's response? That is the ticket. |
Car54 | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 03:31 pm     ok  |
Fruitbat | Monday, April 15, 2002 - 03:39 pm     That's the spirit! |
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