this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Honestly, this is very annoying for me as I use an incandescent bulb to keep my well pump just above freezing during the winter months. It's going to be a huge pain finding a low power heater as a replacement. Most of what I'm finding are made for submersible use for things like fish tanks and burn up if not used underwater.
Heat lamps are exempt.
If it's supposed to just produce light, but is wildly inefficient and disposable, banned, since we have vastly superior tech for that, and have for a while.
If it's actually got a purpose, like heating things at a specific level, that is not a lightbulb, that is a heater and/or a light.
Get a million hour low power led light, and a super low power radiant heat coil. You're already paying a bunch of money and making a bunch of trash, just buy them once now, all y'all hillbilly mechanics.
I get the usecases, most of them are absolutely valid. But with the need, eventually comes a solution.
To doricub @doricub: if you believe it's a widespread issue, you could be the first to design and sell energy efficient and durable, low-cost solutions to this problem. With problems, come opportunities. Help the commonwealth, make some profit. Just be real and don't inaccurately misjudge the demand and potential and make either really cheap crap or really expensive stuff. Check out copyright law in your region and internationally, and investigate the problem and possible solutions, science is your friend. I hope you make something cool.
After highschool, one of my best friends had a 4runner that he built up in the marine corps on the east coast. He was a mechanic. When he drove back to the west coast, where we live, that thing was stored in his dad's backyard for like two years under a blue tarp. He kept a (incandescent) work light on an extension cord in there, and it effectively kept the thing clean and dry. I later helped him rebuild that 22R motor over a week in the snow and learned a ton. That was such a cool experience that I'm really thankful to have.
My point is, there are needs all over. Yours is, most likely, totally valid. But, technologically, we gotta go forwards, and honestly, you could be a step forwards with that. You've said you can only find things not meant for what you want? That's FANTASTIC. Buy a few incandescent bulbs now, to hold you over, but start researching a solution that fits. I know a lot of this stuff requires some investment, but that's the ACTUAL point to copyright law. Seriously, I hope you do this and make it work. That would be awesome to see. You can absolutely do it, it really isn't hard to design something, and find fabrication plants to make parts and send them to you, then sell your COPYRIGHTED goods (for the love of god, look up basic copyright law) at a profit to people that need them. I hope you AT LEAST make back your time and resource investment.
Also, there are a few main ways to advertise. Because once you get your product made, you'll have to show THE RIGHT PEOPLE THAT IT EXISTS AND THAT THEY NEED IT AND HOW TO GET IT;) (big, overly-obvious wink).
Good luck.
ok this is good. I was a bit worried about reptile lights that need the heat and certain light spectrums.
Pipe heating cables are easy to find at hardware stores or online. You can use them to wrap poorly insulated pipes in the winter to avoid them freezing.
I'm guessing something like this would work for you and last a lot longer than a bulb anyway.
https://www.amazon.com/WRAP-Pipe-Heating-Cable-Built/dp/B0002YWMM8
Wont that use the same amout of electricity as a 60w light bulb, but with the added annoyance of it not just screwing into the place the light bulb was?
How is it any better than just using a light?
I am no electrician, but this looks to be applicable to longer sections of pipes. Instead of the heat being focused to just the areas reachable by visible light, this would allow for thawing around bends, longer distances, tighter / smaller spaces, etc.
It still uses power to generate heat, but that 60W will likely be way more efficiently applied to pipes. Bulbs will be quite lossy because heat goes through the air to reach nearby pipes (and any other nearby objects), whereas this is physical wires applied directly around said pipes.
Conduction vs Convection, yeah. Conduction is going to be way faster / more efficient.
Might even be able to put it on a variable switch and build some logic with a raspberry pi so you don't need all 60w.
To step back a bit, don't you consider it annoying that you need to heat pipes full of water and the best solution they could come up with 70 years ago was to add a lightbulb socket several feet away from the pipes?
You can purchase a heat lamp instead, as it's designed for the purpose you describe. They're larger in diameter, but they fit in a standard light socket.
When I had a well house, I used a 'brooder' lamp bulb. They're pretty easy to find. The ones for reptiles are usually around 150 watts. The ones for birds are a bit more wattage and possibly overkill depending on your region and how well insulated your well house is.