I can’t use them but I’ll take them if you’ll take my quart of battery acid and a couple quarts of 10w30. Oh yeah and I’ll put a couple containers of Stabil and opened brake fluid in the box too. Fair is fair.
Oh yeah, and everyone gets a free dozen 100 watt light bulbs made in China or some place.
I still use 100 W bulbs in the attic and one spot in the basement where I seldom go but need a bright light if I do. I was also using them in outside fixtures because the CFLs take so long to warm up in the cold and when you first put them on you can barely tell they are lit. The Leds work well in the cold now.
I still buy 10w30 for the lawnmowers and large snowblower.The snowblower is 48 years old, no sense changing what has worked for 48 years now.
You must have been living large, my 32 year old little snowblower is 2 cycle. The electric company used to give out free bulbs when you paid the bill. My mom stocked up on free bulbs every bill, and we still have a few left. I don’t know how long they did that but thinking the mid 70’s might have been the end. Not much luck with long life in the cfls, but leds so far so good. The nicest thing, you can put an equivalent 100 watt bulb not worrying about the 60 watt max due to heat.
my small snowblower is a Toro CCR2000, they were made from 89 to 96 and were the only tToro model with a Suziki engine, I have had it about 19 years, the big one I have had 30, I don’ buy new lawn or snow equipment because I don’t blow enough snow or cut enough grass to wear one out. 25 or 39 hours a year is the most any of my equioment gets, since I got a small snowblower, I don’t think the big one gets more than 5 hours a year, but when you need it, you need it. It will walk through 4+foot high drifts when I put the drift bars on.
Used to be made in Minnesota. I bought my Toro and discovered it was made in Mexico. Classmate happened to be Toro honcho so I mentioned my disappointment at moving it out of Minnesota. Good machines regardless.
Speaking of CFLs, I noticed I still have a box of them that I won’t use. Got mercury in them so are a hazardous waste. I’m goin all LEDs as they burn out.
Well, I hope the first M in 3M still is Minnesota.
So far but it’s being worked on pretty hard by the executive branch.
Agreed
I also feel CFL was a pathetic replacement for incandescent bulbs, because they were far more expensive, and to add insult to injury, they didn’t last nearly as long as they were supposed to. They talked the talk but couldn’t walk the walk
LED is the way to go
Looking back, CFL bulbs were just an interim, until LED technology was plentiful, cheap and reliable
A light bulb I can’t believe still works with never a flicker is a flourescent light put up in the basement 40 years ago. It’s on 24/7 except for occasional power outages.
You’ve had better luck with those than I did. I had six of those in the garage and shop and with the no light, flicker, and half light, I just replaced them all with LED shop lights. Nice bright light-no comparison. I even put about six of them in the basement storage room and what a difference. Yeah they are a little more expensive but great light. I have had to replace a couple though so they don’t last forever.
In the garage I have replaced the 100 watt bulbs with those screw in warehouse type bulbs from Rockler and they work great. I spent over $400 but like daylight in the garages. I even put one in the attic above the garage. I replaced most of my can lights with LEDs too and haven’t had to change a bulb in a couple years now. It used to be an on-going battle (psst. because someone in my household doesn’t shut light off when not in use. Not to mention any names.)
Daylight is okay in the garage
But I prefer “soft” light in the house itself
Yeah you can buy either in the LEDs. Just have to check the label to see what their light output is. At least for the 60 and 100 watts. The shop lights though and larger warehouse type lights are the brighter white lights I guess to keep me awake.
@bing
Oh yes, quite unusual for even a flourescent light to keep going all these years. When it eventually gives out I’ll replace it with an LED.
I’ve got a few unused incandescent bulbs and CFLs I’ll finish using up around the house but will gradually switch to all LEDs.
That’s also my situation
The power company in my area has a rebate program for businesses and public buildings to convert to LED lighting. I was able to get the church I attend in on the program. We were given $6 for each 4 foot flourescent tube we replaced with an LED tube. I was able to purchase LED tubes for $6.95 apiece. I converted 30 fixtures with 4 flourescent tubes in each fixture for about $120. I did have to rewire the fixtures because the ballast coil had to be removed. In the three years, we have not had to replace a single LED tube. The power company wants to save energy so that it won’t have to upgrade its equipment. I don’t know how much energy our church has saved, but a lot of my energy has been saved. Before we converted to the LED tubes, I was up on a ladder at least once a month replacing fluorescent tubes and half the time I had to replace the ballast transformer as well.
Especially in public buildings, labor costs are expensive. Fifty seven years ago when I was studying in the library at the university I was attending, a crew of three men were pushing a scaffold along and were changing flourescent bulbs. I noticed that they were changing every bulb whether it was burned out or not. I asked one of the crew why every bulb was being replaced and he said that was their job. A year later, I was in a laundromat owned by a man and wife team. The man had on a suit and tie and was working on a machine. His wife was giving him heck for being in his dress clothes, so he stopped working on the machine. I went over and began talking to him. It turned out he was an electrical engineer for the university. I asked him about the business of replacing all the light bulbs when some were still good. He told me it was his project and it was saving the university money. He invited me to come to his office and he would show me the figures. He was right. It did save money. He knew the rated life expectancy of the bulbs, knew the approximate time the lights would be on each week and then the crew changed out bulbs on a schedule. This freed up custodians in buildings for other work. With LED lighting, I don’t know if this plan would even be feasible.
That must have been a common practice. In the early 70’s our building engineer and his partner (when he had one) used to replace all of the tubes at one time, working or not. Then money became tight so they had to wait for them to actually go out, but they were on ladders all the time changing tubes after that. Same thing with the v belts on the ventilation equipment. Had to wait for a failure before replacing and then only the bad one. Not to mention painting-gee paint is expensive.
@bing I saw the figures on this. There were several buildings where the custodian force was reduced by one person. The crew that changed the bulbs could replace the ballast transformer if needed. The bulbs could be purchased in large quantities at a much better price per bulb.
I did have a difference of opinion with one of my fellow church members about replacing outdoor floodlights in pairs. Each fixture held two bulbs. While I was up on the ladder replacing a bulb, I thought it prudent to change the other bulb. I only changed the one bulb, and two days later the other bulb burned out in the fixture and I was back up on the ladder. These were security lights on a photocell. I have since replaced all these bulbs with LED floodlights. I haven’t had any of these go out in four years.
While my labor was free around a church in a business or commercial building, labor is not free.
Good evening, could we please get back to cars? Thanks.
Speaking of cars, I’m still waiting for those Silverstars to burn out. It’s been close to two years now and I’ve had a new set hanging on the wall for a year. AZ with a $10 gift card.
Getting back to the original post, when I first began my employment at the university where I spent my working days, we had a buying organization we could join for something like $25 a year. This buying organization began in the 1950s and lasted into the 1970s. There was an independently owned auto parts store that later became an Auto Pro that was one of the merchants in the organization. We could buy auto parts for the same price an auto repair shop would pay. I bought rebuilt generators and carburetors as well as batteries, spark plugs, oil filters, etc. This was a real asset to me when my salary in 1965 was $6000 plus any summer teaching I could get. I also realized that a repair shop had to mark up the cost of a part. There is time involved in ordering and possibly making a trip.to get the part. As I began to have less time to do my own maintenance and repairs and had more work done by a professional shop, I gladly paid the mark up for the parts.
The buying organization folded as for several reasons. The push to publish and bring in grants increased. Cars became more complicated and took more time to repair. The prices by many of the businesses that enrolled in our buying organization were undercut by the K-Marts and other chains. A Sunoco station that gave us a price break of 1¢ a gallon was undercut by an independent station that opened up down the street. We had a deal with an electronic store where we could buy radio and television tubes for the same cost as a licensed tv repair shop. Our buying organization even had a tube tester we could check out. With solid state circuitry, there aren’t any tubes to be tested.
For me, time became more valuable as I advanced in my career. It’s fine with me that the shop marks up.the cost of the part. Even though I am retired and out of the academic rat race, I would rather spend my time writing grants to keep a chamber orchestra I play in afloat and playing in two bands. I am also lazy. I would rather the repair shop chase down the part and compensate the time involved marking up the part and I will gladly pay for the labor to have the part installed.