Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with bulb

E10... G14... 5V... 1W... Bingo!! Help me find this bulb.

SquidLips — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 10:17:34 -0800

Please help me find replacement light bulbs for my gadget. Some time ago I purchased two USB Lava Lamps from ThinkGeek. The lights have since burnt out and I cannot seem to find replacements.

The base lists the replacement bulbs: E10 G14 5V 1W. E10 is the base, 5V 1W are obvious, but I'm not sure what G14 is - not really relevant to the question but would be interesting to know. I've tried Radio Shack and local hardware stores with no luck. Googling gives me nothing but overseas sites that simply want you to mail them for more information, and a couple that offer online ordering but with a minimum of 1000 pieces... a little overkill for my needs.

Does anyone know where I could get a small supply of these online (from a domestic supplier), or for bonus points, someplace local to the Minneapolis area that carries them in-store?

Super Bonus Points if a source also supplies LED versions. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't work as well because the little sparklies are moved around by the heating quality of the light bulb, but I'd be interested in trying it nonetheless just to see the result.

What is this tool? Seedling waterer? Bonsai?

bitter-girl.com — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:27:11 -0800

Looking for a gardening tool & have no idea what it is: seedling waterer? bonsai tool? It's a metal rosette like you'd see attached to a watering can, maybe 3" across, with a pencil-sized metal pipe leading to a squeezy rubber bulb on the end. The rubber bulb allows you to directly slurp up water through the rosette into the tool itself, and conversely, when you squeeze it, it comes out in a lovely light misty sprinkle, which leads me to believe it's for watering hyperdelicate seedlings. What is this thing, and more importantly, where can I buy one? Bonsai watering cans don't seem to have the rubber bulb thingy on the end. Thanks!

In the dark about my light bulbs

emumimic — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:16:31 -0800

Why do the glass parts of my light bulbs keep separating from the metal? New homeowner here. So far, in less than a month, three burnt out light bulbs have just slid out of the sockets, leaving behind the threaded metal part. I know about the potato trick, but there's no broken glass left behind. I found this question that seems to describe my problem, and tried this solution (didn't work, although it seemed promising at first), and I've already broken two fixtures trying to get these bulbs out (sigh).

At this point, I'm less concerned about how to fix what's already happened, and more interested in WHY it's happening so that I can keep it from happening again. It may be noteworthy that once I can get the metal part to twist out, a powder comes out (like a corroded battery). Is it the wiring? The fixtures (the house is about 30 years old, and the two fixtures I've had problems with (so far) seem to be original or nearly so)? Just old bulbs? Would it help to change them all right now?

[Insert obligatory lightbulb joke]

robcorr — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:28:42 -0800

Three of our lights have burned out, and it's about time I replaced them. Thing is, I have no idea where to start. Here's a picture of the light fitting with the cover removed.

I'm pretty sure it's an R7S halogen bulb, and I'm hoping to just pull it out and take it with me to the shop to get the right replacement.

But where do I start? What should I touch, what should I avoid?

Best CFL bulbs???????

boby — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 11:18:53 -0800

Which CFL bulbs are the longest lasting and cheapest to buy? I'm concerned about saving money on my electric bill but not worried about mercury content (if lights are broken). Are there any CFL bulb giveaways that are online?

Where to get colored refrigerator bulbs

jinatrix — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:57:06 -0800

Where can I get different colored light bulbs for a refrigerator? I want the inside of my fridge to light up in a different color -- preferably blue or orange. Where can I get different colored bulbs?

Go towards the light Carol Anne!

Pollomacho — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 05:38:01 -0800

Is Al right? Am I really saving the environment by switching to CF bulbs? My wife and I, like most folks, have jumped on the compact flourecent bandwagon. In doing some more research, I've come to find out that while, yes, you can save a ton of energy in your home by switching, there is, like most things, more to the story.

The Energy Star folks tell us to leave the bulbs running for at least 15 minutes per use even if I would normally just switch the light off when I was leaving the room. There's mercury in them (yeah, there's mercury in coal, but only half of US electricity generation is coal fired). There are more parts to them requiring more energy to produce them. My house's heater has to work harder to make up for the loss of incandecent bulb heat (inversely of course the AC works less)...

So, what's the deal? Is there definative, accurate, mostly unbiased information that compares the actual and entire environmental impact of the various forms of lighting available, incandecent, flourecent, LED, halogen, big red tallow candles mounted on human skull sconces, etc...?

Please scienticians, male answer syndrome sufferers, environmental wack-os, global warmng deniers of the hive mnd set me on the right path!

My Bulbs Are Loose . . . Again!

unclejeffy — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 05:29:58 -0800

How can I keep scoreboard light bulbs from working their way loose? Asking for a friend: "I'm the basketball coach for a small college with an old gym. We have scoreboards in two corners of the gym. Both use light bulbs to display scores, timeouts, etc. Before each game, I have to get on a ladder and tighten many of the bulbs which have worked their way loose since the last game. This takes a good deal of time, and I really don't like ladders. Is there something that can be put on the threads of the bulbs to keep them from working their way out so easily? (My hunch is that the vibration of the crowd, the game, etc. cause them to unscrew.) Googling has only brought up techniques for how to loosen stuck light bulbs. Thanks in advance!"

LCD Projector Bulb life - when to turn it off

Busy Old Fool — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 07:36:07 -0800

To maximise bulb life, what's the minimum length of time an LCD projector should be turned off for? Bulbs for my projector are awfully expensive (it's used off and on for about 12 hours per day) and contain mercury, so I want to replace them as rarely as possible.

So how long does a gap between uses need to be before it's worth turning a projector off? If I'm not using it for ten minutes? Thirty minutes? Ninety minutes? (For fluorescents, it's supposed to be 15 minutes, but projector bulbs are super-hot, so I assume undergo much more stress when turned on/off.)

I do try to replace the bulb when the warning message appears, but sometimes bulbs fail before that and sometimes someone else is using it and ignores the message.

Planting Lily Bulbs in SoCal?

sdis — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 22:19:17 -0800

I want to plant some Casablanca lily bulbs, so that I may cut them at various times and give them to the SO. I live in Los Angeles, and have sandy soil around my property at different degrees of sunniness and facing different cardinal directions, mostly directly against one wall or another. What should I know?

Halogen bulb makes crackling noise

adrian_h — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 11:51:20 -0800

Is it normal for a halogen light bulb to crackle a little bit after you first install it? The bulb in my halogen lamp burned out, so I bought a new bulb and put it in today. I was careful not to touch my fingers to the bulb, handling it only by the ends.

When I turned it on, it lit the room nicely, but it made some soft crackling noises. They lasted a couple of minutes, and I turned off the light because it was freaking me out. I turned it back on, and the crackling noises were on-again-off-again.

It's a 300-watt bulb, and the lamp says "Use 300 watt or smaller."

I've replaced this bulb before, and I honestly don't remember whether I heard similar noises in the past. It's been a while.

Are these noises normal for a new bulb? Should I take the bulb out and put a new one in, with lower wattage?

This is a torchiere-style lamp, if that matters.

Thanks for helping this non-handyman.

I just don't want to shower in the dark.

Famous — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 01:45:57 -0800

Homerepairfilter: a light bulb blows out. The glass and metal part separate. How do I get the metal part out so I can replace the bulb? If it makes any difference, this is in a fixture on my bathroom ceiling, which makes for a lot of standing precariously on a step ladder and reaching above my head. There is also not a lot of light in there; I wish I knew why I don't own a flashlight.

My google skills are totally failing me here.

Video projector bulb rip

zek — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 16:14:04 -0800

Holy %#$!. I just priced out bulbs for our Proxima X350 video projector. The stores I looked at want $350, about equal to the price used projectors are going for on eBay. If I shell out $350, am I getting ripped off? Since when did it cost so much to make a light bulb?

Fluorescent light problem:

cardboard — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 08:16:30 -0800

Fluorescent light problem:

I have a fluorescent light fixture in my bathroom using two, different-sized, doughnut-shaped bulbs. Lately it's been taking a long time to turn on (15-30 minutes) after I throw the switch in the morning. If the fixture has been running for a while, this warm-up time seems to go down. Does this sound like a ballast problem (and thus my landlord's problem), or a light-bulb problem (mine)? I'm leaning to ballast because the lights look fine once they start, but I haven't been able to find the same symptoms on the half dozen fluorescent lighting websites I've looked at so far.