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What I remember most about them is that they were extremely effective as unintentional bug zappers. The SMELL of instantly vaporized burnt moths in the room is something I’ll likely never forget.
I’m tall so sometimes I was the first person in ages to discover a bug graveyard at someones place.
Around 2004 we had some people over for a card game night. We were all sitting on our house’s big terrace, where we had also put this type of lamp. The terrace was open to the outside and the lamp attracted a large amount of bugs, which would burn and start to smell, the same smell you are remembering.
To stop this from happening, my brother decided to put a kind of glass plate on top of the lamp as a cover. Initially this worked great and the smell was gone.
10 minutes later, the glass had gotten so hot that it exploded violently, shooting shards of glass all across the terrace. It was a lesson learned.
Yeah use quartz next time.
Oh yeah! I forgot.
Lucky you
I had one of these! I want to say it was purchased in the late 90s and lasted until around 2006 before I finally threw it in the garbage lol! They definitely were not stable and once it fell over the bulb would usually break around 50% of the time… Also once it fell over or even if it just got moved a little bit all the parts that screwed together would get loose and the lamp would stand crooked and wobble until you tightened it all back up again!
Threadlock worked well here.
I don’t doubt it! I did not know what thread locker was in 2002 though…
These are awesome still. Replace the halogen bulb with an LED and you’re all set?
That’s what I did. Still works great!
But then you don’t get the sweet aroma of all the bug corpses toasting around the bulb.
Well not super fast bbq on 500 deg high heat, you just slow roast them like smoking at like 140 for hours… they taste better that way
I still use one of these
Same! I read this and thought “Remember? I’m sitting right next to mine.”
The candle that burns twice as bright will burn your fucking house down
They also put out a huge amount of heat ! Quite useful in old high rise flats !
Good for heating the ceiling anyway
Knock them over and put the heat where it belongs
I don’t know when this started but most bedrooms don’t even have a ceiling light anymore, so you still need these floor lamps.
Cheap construction. That was really prevalent in the 60s and 70s, I’m finding a lot of those in my current house hunt
It’s still common in newer construction. My 2000s house doesn’t have ceiling lights in any bedroom but the master bedroom. They just wire half the wall plugs to the switch in the room.
Yeah, it’s a cheap construction “shortcut” and I hate it. Thankfully I’m handy enough to run conduit because I wouldn’t be able to deal with lamp lighting
I understand your frustration, but you can’t deal with nice lamps in the corners of your rooms?
Overhead lighting is just so much nicer. It doesn’t get in the way of cleaning or moving furniture, you don’t need an extension cord if it’s too far from an outlet, there isn’t the game of is it off on the lamp or wall switch, kids can’t grab it, and pets can’t knock it over.
That is correct. My lights are automated and I use the overhead light in conjunction with my alarm in the morning
There’s a housing project in my town that’s the most depressing place I could imagine living. It’s like a cross between Soviet block housing and a minimum security prison: concrete walls, little natural light, and steel doors. The only room in the apartments that have built in lighting is the bathroom since it’s required by code.
It’s entirely a cost thing: the goal was to make “housing” that requires the minimum in maintenance and repair. To that end they went with “durability is more important that livability” and offloading as much responsibility onto the tenants as possible.
That’s weird i just bought a new construction house and every room has a fan and light
I noticed this too, I assumed it was a style/trend thing as things tend to cycle in and out, but could also be about regulations and/or location. House I grew up built in the 50’s had built-in ceiling lights. House I moved to built in 1990 didn’t and I saw that as “this is the new way, ceiling lights are old fashioned”. Now I live in a house built in 2015 and it has built-in ceiling lights.
The fan thing was weird to me as usually we had to install these aftermarket just about everywhere I lived. I’m a florida man so fans are pretty much required here to keep the house cool. In turn now I feel like recessed lights are the new normal and bulbs are out.
Ya my house has pretty much all recessed lights, instead of one light in the middle of the room there’s 2 rows of 3 recessed ones lol.
I used to put my socks on these as a kid cause it’d warm them up. I ended up forgetting them one day and there was a fucking roaring fire coming out of the top of the bowl within minutes.
Girl I was dating in the mid 2000’s was sleeping with one of these lamps in her dorm room. One of those desks on the floor and bed up top bunkbed setups and her pillow fell onto the bulb needless to say the pillow got really nicely burnt. Luckly it didn’t catch fire
Yeah, friend of mine had to rush his onto the balcony like some kind of IKEA branded, badly smoking Olympic torch in a similar situation where a T-shirt got draped on there. Definitely a risk.
Removed by mod
These would be much easier to do with LEDs but somehow they didn’t survive the transition.
Who’s wants upward directional lighting at ceiling height? They were a horrendous design that only lit the room up, not great for reading or crafting.
People who want the entire room lit up with fairly soft lighting?
It only lights the ceiling up, you still need additional lighting for anything you want to do. And halogens are not soft lighting either.
Those were designed so the heat wouldn’t get trapped in the lid and the are super bright, so you couldn’t point them down. Replacing it with LED you wouldn’t need the same design considerations, and just replacing it with a led bulb won’t make it work the same.
These were just a shit light altogether, it’s why it didn’t “survive” the change to led. The efficiency is also worse because of their design.
Most upward lighting comes from the floor or lower down the wall, so it actually floods the room. Theres a point to upward lighting, but not at ceiling height and sending it more up.
It’s using the ceiling as a diffuser to soften it. Same way that photographers don’t normally point a light directly at a subject but instead use a diffuser like this
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-light-diffuser-photography/
I agree that LEDs would probably work better with some kind of frosted glass as a diffuser but there are some high lumen LEDs that would work. They do get warm but not halogen warm.
When I take pictures of my cats, I blast my Emisar DT8’s overdrive mode at the ceiling and it diffuses the light PERFECTLY for sick, sharp cat pics.
PURRFECTLY
Which is a horrible inefficient design and why it didn’t transfer with LEDs.
Shit light gets discontinued, not a surprise. It was also the design of the time, wall sconces are hardly found in new builds anymore. People have moved on to better designs and technology.
I’m guessing you’re getting down voted by all of us that want light to be reflected/diffused off the ceiling, and actively own LED versions of this lamp.
These exist, they make LED versions of this. I have 3 of them because I’m too lazy to crawl into the attic and install better lighting in the ceiling itself.
I too am a fan of pouring money down the drain on inefficient and useless lighting that needs to be 3x the power of other lighting!
The LEDs were to keep with the designs that these lights created with their necessary design, there are better and more efficient ways to achieve the same lighting as these towers.
It’s wild how hard you’re getting raked over the coals here.You’re not wrong at all.edit after your responses to me I get entirely why you’re being downvoted. Your idea is kinda right but you extend it WELL past its bounds.
Unless it’s a traditional style bulb that is leds, those work pretty well in this style of lamp.
It’s like people are ignoring the person who asked why this didn’t transfer to LEDs. Yeah I know what the light was designed for, I literally said it, and then explained why it doesn’t work for LEDs. It was mainly a design to not trap the heat in, if they could do downward facing halogens… this light probably wouldn’t ever exist.
Sure, yeah a led bulb works in it, but you would need a powerful one negating the benefit and it’s also not designed for it. But of course someone will try and make a dime off of it, and some people will eat it up. Or they just think the thing looks nice, even though it’s useless.
It’s soft light after bouncing off the ceiling.
Which is inefficient and terrible design, that’s why it didn’t survive to the new technology.
Sure, it’s inefficient. But it’s more cozy. Also, those lights are usually dimmable, giving the halogen lights an even warmer colour temperature. Together with the indirect light, they were great for bedrooms or living rooms, when you don’t want or don’t need harsh ceiling light. Of course, no one would use them, when they’re trying to work on something or read or something like that. Home lighting isn’t always about the most efficient way to light a room.
I for example still prefer indirect light in my living room, most of the time. Sure, it’s LED by now, but it’s still way nicer to let the light bounce off the wall while I’m just chilling. And if I actually need more light, the ceiling lamp still exists…
Or how would you propose to create a cozy, soft and comfortable lighting atmosphere?
Or how would you propose to create a cozy, soft and comfortable lighting atmosphere?
Proper installed lighting? Like codes require in most places? There’s even lux requirements for decades in code. It’s just modern bulbs don’t meet the requirements that old receptacles used, so now people come up with excuses to use portable lighting instead of proper installed lighting.
Maybe time for a reno to use your modern devices correctly.
I will say, that some places do have a severe lack of code implementation and/or enforcement, so maybe this partly the issue. Non code compliant lighting to begin with.
Direct light and soft light are useful for different purposes. If you’re trying to efficiently light up a room, ceiling light may be useful, but for e.g. photography, you can usually get better results by using a diffuser, and this shape allows reusing the ceiling as the diffuser. Plus nostalgic value.
They sell them at IKEA, with LED bulbs
Just because someone sells something and people buy it, doesn’t mean it’s a great design or there isn’t better options.
Just like essential oils.
Everyone commenting is saying how they need multiple of them, just buy a single better light.
Popcorn ceilings, for all their downfalls, are incredible at diffusing light pointed straight at them. I have a desk lamp pointed straight at the ceiling for when I want to light up my entire bedroom, but don’t want the effect from the downward facing ceiling nipple. That desk lamp is about 4 feet away from the ceiling but it provides plenty of light for the entire room.
Check out the guy with black ceilings.
It only lights the ceiling up, you still need additional lighting for anything you want to do. And halogens are not soft lighting either.
I see you’re in full body-contact mode with others on this discussion, and I don’t mean the pile on, but I honestly wanted to ask you a follow-up question to your statement that I quoted.
What you stated is not my experience. My house has light color painted ceilings, with no popcorn, so when the light goes up it bounces off the ceiling and gives a warm glow to the whole area.
I don’t see it as wasting energy, just diffusing the light in all directions, without having to have an explicit device in between the light and you to do the diffusing (like what they have in the film industry).
And I say this regardless if it was using halogen bulbs or LEDs. With halogens since the light diffuses it does affect a somewhat soft glow to the whole room. Personally I like LEDs better where you can change the warmth level of the light that it emits, but still, the act of the photons bouncing off of light color ceiling and diffusing does give that warmish glow.
I understand if you don’t want to respond, as you spent a lot of time in this conversation already, but I honestly would like to hear your opinions about my thoughts that I just elaborated on.
Lol, this one doesn’t understand how light reflects off of objects
I checked your comment history to see if you’re a troll. Nope, just an incredibly smug, obnoxious person who seems to think your opinions are facts, and everyone else is an idiot for not seeing things your way. Easy choice to block!
Easy choice to block!
FYI, when you block somebody here on Lemmy they can still see your posts/comments and reply to them, but you just can’t see their posts/comments?
I have no issue amending my knowledge when giving unequivocal facts, but if you’re giving an opinion, and I give facts and knowledge back and you don’t want to address it. Sure I guess that makes me obnoxious? For wanting evidence? Sure. Sometimes it’s unwarranted, I’ll give that, and sure I feed the trolls as well, but there’s nothing wrong with having an opinion and not changing it until given facts.
I’ll yell back at the trolls, so fuck me I guess for having some fun?
“unequivocal”
exCUSE me? I explained how 9000 lumens into the eyeball is the ideal lighting and if you disagree, you’re just fooling yourself. It’s not my fault that my superior knowledge about the inefficiency of other lighting is seen as close minded.
I have no issue amending my knowledge when giving unequivocal facts.
We can see your comment history…
sure I feed the trolls as well
By being rude & and all over the place? Doesn’t seem to be best approach. It seems to me as if, you just like drama & negative attention.
Wait, I maybe wrong but doesn’t that make you the troll? Blocked.The problem being, you don’t know who is a troll until you’ve actually engaged with them so yeah you kinda need to engage with someone before being able to tell if they are a troll or not.
And yes my comment history is open, and I don’t delete and stand by what I say, most other people delete their shit and hide.
If you go back, you would see any discussion over the last few days hasn’t provided any sources back. Sure I’m taking it a little far, but yes… I need to amend my opinion without sources… but others don’t, even with sources… sure… makes total sense.
If someone gives attitude what’s wrong with giving it back? You don’t always get context when they delete or have their comments removed.
It’s also incredibly hilarious and ironic to say this and block me from an account with zero comments… go get your real account if you want to say shit like that lmfao.
Y’all it’s a fuckin lamp
I do, this is a great lighting technique for someone who does not want direct lighting
I have issues with light sensitivity. These were a godsend for bright but indirect lighting.
Your ceilings must be very low. If they’re very close to the ceiling, of course they won’t work well. But regular 8’ ceilings were fine with them.
Many had a dimmer, are you sure yours wasn’t turned way down?
I still have one, it’s in the basement, unused (kept it for use while we renovate that room). We have an LED version in our living room that is the primary light in that room, and it works fine for illuminating everything. I regularly read receipts and paper bills in that room without an issue.
Those things have been around since the 60s
That I did not know.
Well you wouldve had to be there heh. Just shows that style is cyclicle
I swapped mine for an LED-equivalent bulb.
Yep. IKEA has a bunch of models. It’s really great for providing indirect light to a whole space to combat glare. Mine also has a little reading light.
Does it light up as much? I remember those halogen things burning like the sun at max power. Not necessarily ro always have ofc but the light was very nice (IIRC).
Not as bright, but it might be the bulbs I chose.
They make 200W+ equivalent incandescent style LED bulbs these days. I have one as the only light in my garage and it’s like the sun, but only uses like 13W.
I bought a R7S 118mm 30W LED dimmable (equivalent to 300W) and it’s still not as bright as the halogen I had before, even when the dimmer is set to max.
Looking up just a few of the first search results for R7S bulbs, I see LEDs around 3300 lumens and halogens around 4500 lumens, so that makes sense. I don’t know if anyone makes a bright enough LED for your replacement.
I’m thinking there’s possibly some confusion here too, due to the way they label bulbs. It looks to be like the halogen is rated to use 300W itself, whereas LED bulbs are labeled by their incandescent equivalent wattage. Halogens are significantly more efficient than incandescent bulbs, so I think you’d need someone to make a 350-400W equivalent LED to match.
That makes sense, thanks!
I’ve still got one, but I converted the bulb to the equivalent of a 100w LED.
Equivalent of 100w LED? That’s uhh… A lot of light.
Yeah, those regularly had 300W halogen bulbs (actually tubes) in them. Reflecting light off the ceiling first is not very efficient.
What lighting technology is it? A 120W sodium vapor lamp from a streetlight? A 200W inductively driven fluorescent torus? A 1000W incandescent monster?
It would be the equivalent of 100W LED lighting. Which, when you consider household LEDs typically only emit ~1-2W of light, 100W would be a lot of light.
They probably meant an LED that is equivalent to a 100W incandescent.
I don’t know what LEDs you have, but mine usually emit 8-12W (ceiling lamps)
I know. It’s a joke, and I have repaired a work light with two 50W LED modules so I know exactly how much light 100 W of LED lighting emits, and I’m pondering what it would take other technology to correspond to that.
And the input power of typical E27 household LED bulbs is usually 8-12 W. If one buys a 1-2W LED bulb, they will often find it useless and throw it out (I know because I sift through light bulb bins in shops.)
Of 100W LED. Amount of light 100W LED would emit.
Also that video has soviet osciloscope jumpscare.
I know what you meant. I literally named three non-LED devices that emit as much light as a 100W LED, or “equivalents of a 100W LED”.
Ah. Ok.
Your question didn’t have enough words. Asking “What other kind of light would a 100 watt LED be equivalent to” would have been less ambiguous.
Well, there are only two ways I could have meant it. Of both lighting technologies being referred to here, one is LED from context. Also, no other technology can match 200W fluorescent etc. with 100 W of input power.
But yeah, I do concede that some puzzle-solving is needed if you’re not familiar with the technology.
I don’t think you understand that your comment made it seem like you were the one who misunderstood and didn’t fully read his comment.
I still have one lol
How many bugs are inside it?
Too afraid to look.
🤷♀️
Doubles as fly killer. Remember hearing a couple zap on that fucking food service light
Ah, the smell of freshly burnt bugs. We once had a giant moth catch on fire which shot several inches above the top of the lamp and set off the smoke detector. The apartment reeked for days.
