Meanwhile, here, I can never catch (or seldom catch) the CR2032, 2025, or LR44’s… not that I have much that uses those still — just some dog lights, and since we fenced in the back yard, I’m not as concerned about dogs in the dark. Except for our 2-y.o. german shepphard mix - who seems to be afraid of the dark, and will only wander out of the porch light if he’s wearing a little white LED clip light facing the ground. Go figure.
Anyway… I picked up 5 more and will see how brave I get. In my casual testing, I was surprised at how cool the bulb stayed, but I also am running it base down in a ventilated can, for limited periods of time. I will replace the overhead ceiling fixture CFL bulbs with these, to get warmer, faster, and brighter lighting.
I revisited my calculations and adding both sides of the circuit make the numbers balance nicely ( :person_facepalming: ). Strange markings… the base gives “120v @ 135mA” (16.2W), the package reads 9W, and LEDs seem to use 3.5W. Apparantly, all of them may be correct. CAN the bridge rectifier & filtering be comsuming another 5 watts? I don’t remember THAT much electronics theory.
Disclaimer… I did NOT measure the current used at the AC side… Un-natural fear of shocking myself, I guess. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, I’ve done it so often.
I plan on sacrificing 2 or 3 bulbs to a jury-rigged series setup to see exactly how far I can push things (like, my luck)…
- desolder the light disks, clipper the V+ out to the light disk through my DVM, complete the circuit, measure the current in use
- solder a take-off point to “the other side” of the LED string on the second light disk (LS2), clipper the near side of LS2 and insert it in series with the first string (LS1). Wear sunglasses. Measure current in use.
- solder a take-off point just aft of the 8th diode on LS3, insert that 1/2 of LS3 in series with the first two. Add SPF50 just in case. Raise the window blinds to let excess photons pass in a less impeded fashion. Measure the current.
- take the whole thing apart and consider my blessings at not having electrocuted anything (or one), pray for better sense. Probably sit in the dark quivering with adrenaline for 30 minutes, thinking of ways to use my new found knowledge to conquer the world — or lament that I now have to solder everything back together so I can at least get some working bulbs out if it again.
Re: the 4 y.o. bulbs from China… possibly over-designed because they weren’t sure how well things would go… versus the newer bulbs, which were probably also made in China, but after the accountants worked out exactly how many would expire due to cheaper design, through cost shaving, factory-floor components, and the like. With LEDs, I wouldn’t worry about tearing things down… CFLs? Heck, even when I was younger and immortal, I didn’t want mercury and glass shards near my hands and eyes… I disassembled a base of a CFL once. Nothing usable in it, by the time I got there.