Products You Never Knew Existed

[Gravdigr]

Yeah, I only fell across the pic on the interwebs.

What better reason than chocolate to go to WallyWorld?

[xoxoxoBruce]

To be fair, you may not have known they existed because they didn't. At least not this style/configuration, although there have been other attempts at it.

They must be safe, they only do 12 mph(19.3 kph). Ever walk in to a door, wall, or other stationary object? Of course you have, everybody has, and it hurt, didn't it. Now how fast do you think you were moving?

Wiki says,

In the absence of significant external factors, humans tend to walk at about 1.4 m/s (5.0 km/h; 3.1 mph).[1][2][3] Although humans are capable of walking at speeds upwards of 2.5 m/s (9.0 km/h; 5.6 mph),

Yeah yeah, Usain Bolt did 44.7 km/h (14.4m/s, 27.78 mph), but if he'd run into a telephone pole, fugetaboutit. Even if you manage to avoid stationary objects, and god forbid, moving objects , there's also the pavement crack/pothole/stick trip-up. Calculating the skin loss vs speed would take a super computer because of all the variables. Maybe NASA would do it since tw told me they aren't doing science anymore.



I figure that $700 price tag breaks down to the inventor(patent holder) gets $10, and the manufacturer gets $10. Figure another $10 for the various transportation ships and trucks. The importer/wholesaler gets $20, and $50 to the retailer, because in this case it's a high end outfit. that leaves $599.95 for liability lawyers and Insurance salesmen.

[Lamplighter]

OK, but what is the learning curve on those things ? Flat, on your ...

[Gravdigr]

I used to work in a warehouse, and we used these little carts called a Taylor-Dunn.

Here's one:



We used them for hauling orders, and pulling little 4x8 foot trailers for larger orders. Anyway, ours were governed to 7.5 mph, top speed. I was on one whose brakes decided to go away, and I stepped off the thing into a low riding shelf, at 7.5 mph.

Wasn't a disaster, but, it wasn't the most fun I ever had.

Pass on the 12 mph skates.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

OK, but what is the learning curve on those things ? Flat, on your ...

I get from the text, you lower the toe end of your foot to go and the heel to stop. This is accomplished through a pivot plate, probably under your arch. The effect would be using the pivot of your ankle to go and stop while your body is balancing from the ankle pivot up. It doesn't look like it could have a very long throttle throw so sensitive to small movement. I'm sure a coordinated person with exceptional balance could master smooth operation in mere years. But on the feet of a ballet dancer habitually standing in one of the five positions, aggressive throttles would be dangerous.

[glatt]

"Filament" LED light bulb are the future, but here today. The price just needs to come down a little bit. These things are freaking awesome!

I bought one of these LED filament bulbs to try it out. Not cheap. $15.50, but free shipping.

It came in a plain unmarked box in a padded envelope. The bulb was in a protective plastic clam shell. No brand name that I can see.



Comparing the LED filament bulb side by side with an incandescent bulb.



And here it is in the fixture, with the dimmer at 100%. On the left is a 40 watt incandescent. In the middle is a 4 watt Filament LED, and on the right is a 60 watt incandescent. To my eye, in person, it looks as bright as the 60 watt bulb.



Here's a very underexposed close up of the LED light. You can sort of see in individual LEDs under the filament's coating.



And I noticed with the lamp shades on that the LED's 4 filaments effectively eliminate the shadows caused by the lampshade wire clamps that grab the bulb. Those shadows are visible on the incandescent lamp shade.



And finally, I took a video of the dimming.



The LED bulb is listed as 2600K, but it seems just a little bit whiter than the incandescent bulbs at 100% power. And as you dim the lights, the incandescents go yellow, but the LED keeps its color.

I like this bulb. It's expensive, but I ordered 4 more. It will take the Dining Room light from 220 total watts (with a mixture of 40 and 60 watt bulbs) and reduce it to 20 total watts. I don't know how long it will take for these to pay for themselves. I suppose I should have calculated that before ordering 4 more, but that would have involved tracking down a power bill and doing the calculations.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by glatt

"Filament" LED light bulb are the future, but here today. The price just needs to come down a little bit. These things are freaking awesome!

I bought one of these LED filament bulbs to try it out. Not cheap. $15.50, but free shipping.

It came in a plain unmarked box in a padded envelope. The bulb was in a protective plastic clam shell. No brand name that I can see.

Attachment 50537

Comparing the LED filament bulb side by side with an incandescent bulb.
Attachment 50538


And here it is in the fixture, with the dimmer at 100%. On the left is a 40 watt incandescent. In the middle is a 4 watt Filament LED, and on the right is a 60 watt incandescent. To my eye, in person, it looks as bright as the 60 watt bulb.
Attachment 50539


Here's a very underexposed close up of the LED light. You can sort of see in individual LEDs under the filament's coating.
Attachment 50540


And I noticed with the lamp shades on that the LED's 4 filaments effectively eliminate the shadows caused by the lampshade wire clamps that grab the bulb. Those shadows are visible on the incandescent lamp shade.



And finally, I took a video of the dimming.



The LED bulb is listed as 2600K, but it seems just a little bit whiter than the incandescent bulbs at 100% power. And as you dim the lights, the incandescents go yellow, but the LED keeps its color.

I like this bulb. It's expensive, but I ordered 4 more. It will take the Dining Room light from 220 total watts (with a mixture of 40 and 60 watt bulbs) and reduce it to 20 total watts. I don't know how long it will take for these to pay for themselves. I suppose I should have calculated that before ordering 4 more, but that would have involved tracking down a power bill and doing the calculations.

It's not even a year later, and 2.5 of the 5 LED bulbs I bought have failed. The 0.5 failure is that 2 of the 4 filaments of one bulb have stopped lighting up. I think there is a poor electrical connection somewhere in the bulb and it gets strained somehow over time and breaks. The filaments flicker a bit and then stop working altogether.

I can't recommend these bulbs any longer. At $12 per bulb, the price is simply too high to be replacing them after 10 months. The claim was 15,000 hours of operation and the real world results are 500 hours or so. I'd be ok with them if they were $1.

[Gravdigr]

[classicman]

Originally Posted by glatt

It's not even a year later, and 2.5 of the 5 LED bulbs I bought have failed. The 0.5 failure is that 2 of the 4 filaments of one bulb have stopped lighting up. I think there is a poor electrical connection somewhere in the bulb and it gets strained somehow over time and breaks. The filaments flicker a bit and then stop working altogether.

I can't recommend these bulbs any longer. At $12 per bulb, the price is simply too high to be replacing them after 10 months. The claim was 15,000 hours of operation and the real world results are 500 hours or so. I'd be ok with them if they were $1.

Is there a dimmer switch involved? I've heard that LED's do NOT like them. Same with fluorescents.
As an aside, there is a really weird man in the shop next to my office who is a hoarder. He has a few hundred boxes of 100W incandescent bulbs. I bought him a pizza for 4 boxes. I am in Heaven! I can see again.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by glatt

"Filament" LED light bulb are the future, but here today. The price just needs to come down a little bit. These things are freaking awesome!

I bought one of these LED filament bulbs to try it out. Not cheap. $15.50, but free shipping.

It came in a plain unmarked box in a padded envelope. The bulb was in a protective plastic clam shell. No brand name that I can see.

Attachment 50537

Comparing the LED filament bulb side by side with an incandescent bulb.
Attachment 50538


And here it is in the fixture, with the dimmer at 100%. On the left is a 40 watt incandescent. In the middle is a 4 watt Filament LED, and on the right is a 60 watt incandescent. To my eye, in person, it looks as bright as the 60 watt bulb.
Attachment 50539


Here's a very underexposed close up of the LED light. You can sort of see in individual LEDs under the filament's coating.
Attachment 50540


And I noticed with the lamp shades on that the LED's 4 filaments effectively eliminate the shadows caused by the lampshade wire clamps that grab the bulb. Those shadows are visible on the incandescent lamp shade.



And finally, I took a video of the dimming.



The LED bulb is listed as 2600K, but it seems just a little bit whiter than the incandescent bulbs at 100% power. And as you dim the lights, the incandescents go yellow, but the LED keeps its color.

I like this bulb. It's expensive, but I ordered 4 more. It will take the Dining Room light from 220 total watts (with a mixture of 40 and 60 watt bulbs) and reduce it to 20 total watts. I don't know how long it will take for these to pay for themselves. I suppose I should have calculated that before ordering 4 more, but that would have involved tracking down a power bill and doing the calculations.

Originally Posted by glatt

These bulbs flicker a little bit. Apparently the larger filament LED bulbs have capacitors on the tiny circuit board in the base to smooth out the flickering, but these candelabra bulbs are so small, there isn't room in the base for capacitors. It doesn't bother me, but Mrs. Glatt has commented on it a few times. So these LED bulbs may be short lived in this house. We'll see how it plays out. But I won't be buying a new dimmer until I know the LEDs are here to stay.

Originally Posted by glatt

It's not even a year later, and 2.5 of the 5 LED bulbs I bought have failed. The 0.5 failure is that 2 of the 4 filaments of one bulb have stopped lighting up. I think there is a poor electrical connection somewhere in the bulb and it gets strained somehow over time and breaks. The filaments flicker a bit and then stop working altogether.

I can't recommend these bulbs any longer. At $12 per bulb, the price is simply too high to be replacing them after 10 months. The claim was 15,000 hours of operation and the real world results are 500 hours or so. I'd be ok with them if they were $1.

I'm obsessed with getting LED bulbs for my candelabra style dining room light. It uses 5 x 60 watt incandescent bulbs and it kills me to be consuming that much power.

The old LEDs I had were problematic. They were too expensive, they flickered like a very fast strobe light, and they got too hot and burned out after less than a year. The flickering was a result of the base being too small to fit a capacitor.

I just found a new bulb that appears to fix all of those problems. These new bulbs ahve the same filament technology, except they have a large metal heat sink above the base. The heat sink disperses the heat, so they should last longer, and the large heat sink is big enough to contain a capacitor that will even out the current and stop the flickering. The price is also much more reasonable at $3.80 per bulb.