[Hallicrafters] 130 volt light bulbs

[Roger (K8RI)]

Glen Zook wrote:
> When I was working for TXU (electric company for about half the State of Texas) and was on their "speakers' bureau" one question that came up at least once per presentation that I made was always "why do my light bulbs burn out so fast".  The reason was that TXU, as well as virtually all of the major electric companies in the United States, runs 125 VAC +/- 2 volts as the "standard" 
In "the old days" (<:-)) ) they had a much wider tolerance. 110 or 112  
may have been nominal but IIRC minimum was 107 and max was close to 
125.  We were located near the head end of a long line so we basically 
had a relatively high voltage so those at the far end would still be 
within tolerance.  We were going through bulbs at an unbelievable rate. 
As I did most of the calibration for the plant where I worked I brought 
home some test equipment and sure enough, the voltage was high.  I 
called the power company and told the engineer what the voltage was. He 
wanted to know how I knew my meter was right. When  I told him my 
profession was calibrating them he said he wished I hadn't said that as 
it was going to mean a lot of paper work.  I replied, "How about I 
reword the report and just tell you I think the voltage is a bit high 
out here".  As long as I lived there and he worked at that job we really 
had good and prompt service after that.
> voltage nowadays and especially during the warmer months usually the voltage is on the "+" side at 127 volts.  At that voltage a 120 volt bulb generally lasts only about 10% of the life that it has at a maximum of 120 volts.  Therefore, my recommendation was to purchase 130 volt bulbs.
>
>   
The only problem with that is the lumens, or light output drops 
considerably and incandescents are already pretty inefficient.
> One of the primary reasons that 120 volt bulbs are the vast majority of bulbs that can be found at most retail outlets is that they do burn out so fast with the higher voltages now furnished by most electric companies and therefore the retail outlets sell a lot more bulbs.  When 130 volt bulbs are used they tend to last between 10 and 20 times as long as the 120 volt bulbs and therefore the sales of bulbs are severely curtailed when the customer "finds out" about 130 volt bulbs.
>
> Glen, K9STH
>
> Website:  http://k9sth.com
>
>
> --- On Wed, 12/10/08, tuscola <tuscola at tds.net> wrote:
>
> From: tuscola <tuscola at tds.net>
>
> In the past 6 months I got rid of all of my CFL lights because of the RF noise and because of the two warning labels that are on each of these lamps packaging...."Contains Mercury and made in China".
>   
This should come as no surprise as CFLs are after all "Compact 
fluorescent Lights" and that's how fluorescents work.  However a 100 
watt incandescent uses 100 watts while the same amount of light from a 
CFL uses about 26 watts, so you save 75 watts.  When you take into 
account the tiny amount of Mercury in the CFL versus the amount of 
Mercury emitted from a coal fired power plant, over the life of the 100 
watt lights, the incandescent puts more Mercury into the environment 
than is contained in the CFL.
>  
> I went back to standard light bulbs, but am now using 130v lights. I bought these at Lowes they run $9.98 for a box of 24, they carry no warning labels or cause RF problems. They are made by Sylvania in the USA. 100w use's 88w 
Which means you are not getting any where near as much light out of 
them. I purchase lights for what they can do (IOW how many lumens they 
put out). I'd basically have to purchase 150W versions of the 130 volt 
lights to get as much light and doing so is even less efficient. OTOH 
Our voltage is consistently 115 to 118 at present which is a long way 
from 125+/-2.  I can't recall ever seeing the voltage above 120 here in 
central Michigan.
> and has a life of 1875 hrs vs. 750. 60w use's 53w and has a life of 2500 hrs vs. 1000 hrs.
>   
But how much light do you get out of them?
In my shop I run 22, 75W, 8' fluorescents or 1650 watts. These put out 
6,420 lumens for each tube and are rated for 12,000 hours.  That's 
141,240 lumens from suspended, white fixtures in a 28 X 40' building 
that has a "white" barn metal interior (both walls and ceiling). As 
those fixtures are only divided between two circuits and generally they 
are all on when I'm out there, I can figure that when the first tube 
fails the others will *all* go within a month.  So I just purchase them 
by the case which happens to be a LOT cheaper too. So when the first one 
goes I just replace them all.

When looking at incandescents you can also shop by output (lumens), 
power in Watts, and lifetime.  So you can get that 100 watt light bulb 
at, or close to the same output in lumens  rated for the 1800 to 1900 
hours (or more) for 120 volts.  They cost more, but over the life of the 
bulb are more economical than the regular incandescents and should be 
far more efficient than  a 130 volt, 100 watt light that only draws 88 
watts on 120 volts. Light output is not linear with power drawn compared 
to the rated power. IOW the output drops faster than the power.

One thing that raises a question, is why do some hams consistently have 
RFI problems with CFLs and fluorescents while others consistently do not?

I've never had a problem with RFI from them. However even though this 
house is near 40 years old, all of the outlets are grounded and the 
house system is properly grounded. My tower/antenna system ground is 
also tied into the same system.

I chase DX on 1.8 through 50 MHz although not a serious DXer and noise 
from the house has never been a problem. Electric fences, power lines, 
and even baby monitors within about a half mile to mile have been.


73

Roger (K8RI)