Getting older happens so fast. You start caring about things no one else does. You can see the futility that others don’t. It’s frustrating and it’s real. I wish I could give you a hug Brad. You’re a good egg.
The place I used to work at had a battery/CFL/printer ink recycling station in the downstairs lobby. I would often grab CFLs out of that bin and harvest parts out of them. Most of the time, the electrolytic capacitors still tested good, even though you can be assured they have been well baked. I used the parts, including the film caps to repair a good number of AA5 tube radios. One of those tube radios fitted with electrolytic caps pulled from a dead CFL some years ago currently gets several hours of use a week, and still works just fine. Most of the boards got tossed in a misc parts drawer for future harvesting of inductors, diodes, etc. The removed fluorescent tubes were placed back in that recycling bin. Right about the time LEDs were taking over, more and more CFLs that still worked perfectly fine were getting dumped.
This reminds me of when I was a kid. Gotta take it apart to see what’s up! Then mom yelling at me to stop taking the new toaster apart, and do that stuff to the old one that’s broke. 😂😂😂
I'm pretty sure back in the day there were tons on non-integrated CFLs available. You can still actually find them but it's really hard to find one with an edison screw.
I think just shy of 8 years is pretty good for a bulb. I wish all those '15 year' LEDs would last even half as long. And yes, a removable PSU/ballast unit would be nice, but honestly, how many folks would be willing to (inevitably) pay more for that. Actually, there was such a thing in the 80s, circlite bulbs with Edison ballast adapters. Basically just that, a CFL consisting of two standardized parts. Pretty neat huh? Nobody would buy that today. It would also be safer as it would be harder for a popping cap to shatter the glass. Happened to me once, probably decades ago by now. Needless to say, that was the last time I used any kind of CFL. Even though not all of them are that sort of mercury vape. That one was probably just cheap crap.
I've had quite a few cfl bulbs die for no obvious reason. Often it's the cfl tube that's popped it's clogs, but i used to keep the tubes from dead ones and do a mix and match of parts. I have a led bulb in the living room now. Fine until one of the leds goes poof.
You just came up with a solution right there. Ie interchangeable parts, but hey, ho, we're still riding on a donkey when it comes down to common sense. It seems that people don't give much of a shit these days, so long as they can do everything from their mobile phones. Surely they would welcome the day when their phone could wipe their ass for them via an app!! Looks like we're stuck like this 'till that main board blows a fuse and all the apps go down. There is a saying about putting all your eggs in one basket. Virtual reality is diminishing actual reality. IMHO.
I prefer the outlawed old lightbulbs with a wire. The led lights electronics is like one of.those effects pedals for guitar...oh, the is mercury in those electronics..~¿~•°°
Incandescent bulbs are probably the only component where that's a good thing. Because lifespan is negatively linked to brightness and efficiency. You could always buy longlife bulbs, but people only used them for hard to reach fixtures, because they were that dim for their wattage.
@@westelaudio943 I have a few 50 Watt GE "mushroom" bulbs from 1956(?) kicking around here someplace. They came with the house and were working when I replaced them with cfls.
