Lightbulbs

[shadowmouse]

Sorry for starting multiple threads, but ...

Yep, I'm having a day. The bedroom light burned out after several years of heavy use. Luckily (or so I thought) the fixture is right over my bed, and that helped me pop it open. YIKES! What the hell was I looking at? There was no bulb and whatever was up there was all hardwired. There is a box that I assume must be some form of LED light (just a cube about one inch on a side and half an inch or so in depth), but I don't see any way to change it without tools and probably needing to find the right circuit breaker and I haven't seen anything like it in any of the local shops so it probably needs a specialized supplier. No thanks, it was easier to buy a lamp.

Lightbulbs. They used to be a simple choice, either an incandescent bulb or a fluorescent tube. If you were daring you might even consider a colored bulb or a black light. Now though, incandescent bulbs are a thing of the past, there are swirly fluorescent bulbs to take their place, but those are getting upstaged by LEDs. They're one of those things that don't really demand a lot of thought, until something goes wrong or you need to fit a special need.

So, what do you guys prefer? Do you use any kind of novelty bulbs? Do you miss incandescent bulbs? Are you just wearing a candle on your head and prone to getting mugged?

[AeneasBK]

If you feel you need a lightbulb in your room it is an indication that your monitors aren't big enough. Get a third one, or increase the size of the ones you are using until the ghostly pale glow fills your room and lightbulbs become redundant.

[Twoddle]

Why don't you ask your landlord to fix it?

[Gaidax]

It could be a halogen lamp. I highly doubt it's not standard of some sort, simply take a picture and go to some nearest hardware store. It's likely an easier replacement than you think.

[the game]

get smart bulbs. they're great.

[shadowmouse]

@Twoddle Under different circumstances, I would. She is very nice and quite helpful. Right now though, I don't want random workers coming into the apartment --*probably* not a problem, but Beijing has had a recent spike in COVID-19 cases, some are in this district, and I'm in several high risk groups. Since I plan to leave country in the next couple of months, it can be back put on the back burner.

If you feel you need a lightbulb in your room it is an indication that your monitors aren't big enough.

I agree, but with a move hanging over my head, I had to go to a laptop when I upgraded. My toaster, erm, I mean my PC, is stuck running on a 15" backup monitor because the old one gave up the ghost before I upgraded. While there is a certain temptation to simply do things up in candles and chains, the timing just doesn't seem right.

@Gaidax Halogen lamps are still bulbs and use sockets, unless they've gotten fancier and don't show it on an image search. There is literally no "bulb" as such and no socket. There is a small plastic box, a bit bigger than the first segment of my thumb, and it is hardwired in.

[XDurionX]

I VASTLY prefer lightbulbs as well, not to mention, tht we COULD produce them so they would hardly ever break. Too bad they rn ot off fashion, LED-lights suck big time.

[Saltysquidoon]

Why not post an image if it's super weird I want to see it.

[Coolthulhu]

I don't miss incandescent bulbs at all because of them being literally incandescent, and I spent quite a bit of time in a very hot "DYI attic" painting stuff in my youth. It had no AC and was lit by incandescent light bulbs. Not pleasant. Replaced those with smart ones, and opted for a combination of smart lights and LEDs in the other places. No heat, easy to install and replace, no loud "pop" every other year or so. Haven't had to change a single smart bulb or LED yet, which means in over 5 years at least, probably more.

[MCMLXXXII]

Wait a minute..... people actually ask a landlord to change a light bulb?

[Ghostpanther]

I don't miss incandescent bulbs at all because of them being literally incandescent, and I spent quite a bit of time in a very hot "DYI attic" painting stuff in my youth. It had no AC and was lit by incandescent light bulbs. Not pleasant. Replaced those with smart ones, and opted for a combination of smart lights and LEDs in the other places. No heat, easy to install and replace, no loud "pop" every other year or so. Haven't had to change a single smart bulb or LED yet, which means in over 5 years at least, probably more.

I have had to change out a couple which only lasted about a year or two. But generally, they will last much longer than that. My main reason for replacing just about every bulb in my homestead with LED's is the less energy they use. If you do that with all of your bulbs, a home owner can save a lot of money over the lifetime of the bulbs.

And as you mentioned, the LED's do not produce near the heat as the incandescent do. And mercury contamination is not a concern with them. Their prices have dropped significantly also. The electric company which serves our rural area, have replaced all of their outdoor security lights with LED ones.

[Ghostpanther]

Wait a minute..... people actually ask a landlord to change a light bulb?

In the OP's case, It is a special light fixture, which does not have a normal light bulb socket. So yes, the landlord in that case, should have it replaced.

[Ripster42]

Wait a minute..... people actually ask a landlord to change a light bulb?

I don't generally, but mine don't require tools to replace and an unknown light bulb type..

but I don't see any way to change it without tools

I used to have a bedside lamp for reading that required a strange lightbulb. Only hardware stores carried replacements. After a few times replacing the bulbs the price of them was starting to get exorbitant (for a lightbulb), so I just bought a new lamp.

[Ripster42]

My impression is it doesn’t have a bulb, just leds on a circuit board. So you’d need to remove them and solder on new ones.

I'm willing to defer to your more concise interpretation.

[shadowmouse]

Why not post an image if it's super weird I want to see it.

Most image hosting services are blocked here.

Right now, it is night time. I'll see about snapping a picture tomorrow, when the lighting is better. I *think* ImgBB may not be blocked, Strawberry's picture in the image thread actually showed up. The catch, of course, will be whether I can upload to them.

Wait a minute..... people actually ask a landlord to change a light bulb?

Cupcake (my surgeon) would be so proud of me! I managed to balance on an unstable surface (the bed) and do work above my head. Post surgery, that counts as a major victory. She would also put on the very scary surgeon face and remind me that I'm still supposed to be recovering and have chunks missing from my foot. So, yeah ... weird as it sounds, I'm probably not supposed to do things like that. If there were a danged bulb though, I woulda had it whipped!

@Ghostpanther @Vegas82 Thanks, guys. Yes, you've nailed it.

[Coolthulhu]

I have had to change out a couple which only lasted about a year or two. But generally, they will last much longer than that. My main reason for replacing just about every bulb in my homestead with LED's is the less energy they use. If you do that with all of your bulbs, a home owner can save a lot of money over the lifetime of the bulbs.

And as you mentioned, the LED's do not produce near the heat as the incandescent do. And mercury contamination is not a concern with them. Their prices have dropped significantly also. The electric company which serves our rural area, have replaced all of their outdoor security lights with LED ones.

Yeah. Smart bulbs are nice, too, where LEDs are not an option - no heat, less power consumption, though it's kind of irritating to wait 30 seconds or so for them to reach full brightness.
The bolded part is a handy reminder, I should probably look into updating the security floodlights at my lakeside house, and I'm going this weekend. Perfect timing.

[Coolthulhu]

Smart bulbs are LEDs usually... and what LED takes 30 seconds to reach full brightness? Are you perhaps thinking of compact fluorescent bulbs?

I honestly have no idea, but they aren't LEDs (unless there are LEDs that take 30 seconds to reach full brightness), and they aren't CFL either - I have some CFLs for my photographic equipment, they reach full brightness instantly and can get rather hot, whereas the ones I have that take 30 seconds can stay on for hours and remain almost cold to the touch. So yeah, I have no idea what they are, and I can't check because I'm not in my mountain house right now.

[shadowmouse]

@Saltysquidoon Aha! Mystery solved! Much better lighting, a different pair of glasses, and the ability to study an enlarged image all helped me. It's now downgraded to pretty weird.



The light wasn't the box, the LEDs are mounted on the grey ring. I wasn't able to tell in poor light, I have mild astigmatism and I mistook the squares for cut outs in the metal. It doesn't help that I'm used to older LED lights that didn't have the small, rectangular LEDs.

I suppose it makes some sense in a rental context, it isn't something conveniently stolen.

[Saltysquidoon]

@Saltysquidoon Aha! Mystery solved! Much better lighting, a different pair of glasses, and the ability to study an enlarged image all helped me. It's now downgraded to pretty weird.

TyTy, just putting a raw ring of LEDs in a fitting is still pretty odd though.

[Gaidax]

Looks like a fairly standard LED Halo ring.

You can simply remove it, you don't need anything more than a simple screwdriver for it.

Then just bring to your standard electronics trash shop and they will sell you replacement. It should be cheap.

When I was in Shanghai you had a whole street filled with such shops, I bet you have same in Beijing.