Light bulb tester, just *how* does it work?

Is the PTC similar for Halogen? And those also may not be around for long. 60W equivalent LEDs are around $1.50 making them very cost competitive.

"Anything" Leds is USELESS. Sorry 🙁

We are not illuminating anything here, we NEED a high power, mains rated, current limiting PTC coefficient red hot piece of wire in series with mains supply.

Still available inside these:

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There is a progressive ban going on so stock a few for Lab use.

They have been around since California started the push for more lighting efficiency. The question is whether the off to on resistance change is as much as a traditional tungsten bulb. it would be worth measuring.

It IS a traditional tungsten wire, only surrounded by a gas which makes it evaporate less.
 
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Yes but it runs much hotter. It may be a bigger off to on ratio which would be good. Pretty simple to test. I'll get one next time I'm at a hardware store. I was not suggesting using an LED lamp as a current limiter. Just that the pervasive market penetration will effectively eliminate the incandescent lamp from the market. CFL's are vanishing as well. Stock up where ever you see incandescents.
 
Incandescent light bulbs will still be with us for a long time. There are still a few Edison units still around. They may eventually only show up at garage sales or the internet, but there are still applications where they work best.

The important issue is that when cold they can pass as much as ten times as much current as compared to when fully powered.

My basic light bulb box has three switches. So I can use a 25 watt lamp, a 60 watt lamp or a 500 watt one. It also allows for two or three to be in circuit at the same time. Yes I do test gear where a 500 watt lamp is useful!

My question is where did light bulb test bench current limiters start? I have been using one for 50 years now!
 
Regular old incandescent lamps are a thing of the past, EXCEPT specialty bulbs. All you care about is it being a load, so a reflector heat lamp would work, "appliance bulbs" would work, Rough Duty bulbs work. Even fancy large globe types.
 
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