My Old Lamps

I have some old style halogen lamps which use 150 watts.

Time to upgrade to LEDs.

When I disassembled lamp #1, I found a burned wire.

Might be time to check your lamps, too!

 

The other lamp wiring was OK.

New lamps are expensive.  So, high time for some maintenance.

 

First I replaced the “halogen lamp socket”. Then I added one of these LED replacement bulbs.

It is a “warm white bulb” which means it is a little dim.  That is OK when I have to get up before dawn to catch a plane or something like that.

For the other lamp I decided to add a big LED lamp fixture.

The Cloudy Bay item shown here is held together by three bolts.

I brought one bolt to the hardware store to match the M6 thread and got three real long bolts 100 mm long.  Add 25 ~ 50 mm to the existing bolt length.

Then I made three holes in the old lamp shade and bolted the new LED lamp into place.

Three new bolts and three existing nuts.

These new LEDs are cool “white which” means really bright. 

The lamp looks good whether on or off. 

This lamp is kind of like strobe lights though, giving out 120 flashes per minute.  If I wave my hand right by the light, I can see some strobing effects.

Perhaps there are some better LED lights out there, which would have more components such as capacitors to store some energy and reduce the voltage ripple inherent in the 60 cycle AC power.  A more-expensive lamp fixture might give a more steady light.

Then again I could build some rechargeable batteries into the lamp base, which would run the LEDs on direct current. Light output would be steady.

The search for a suitable replacement goes on.

fin