Relamping
A couple of weeks ago one of the tracklights in the kitchen became noticably yellow. Like traffic-light yellow. Considering I got the lights in 1998 or 1999, have used them in multiple addresses since and have never replaced a bulb, I figured the time was coming. Sunday night, that light burned-out completely.
Having a spare bulb in the drawer, I took down the fixture, replaced the bulb and cleaned the lens. Yow! What a difference. It seemed, subjectively, to be twice as bright as the rest.
Yesterday, I had a bad eye day. You may have bad hair days, I have bad eye days. Switching glasses, cleaning lenses, adjusting them on my face, nothing helped. Multiples of everything everywhere I looked. And out-of-focus to boot.
By the time I got home, my right eye hurt from trying all day to get anything in focus. Then I turned-on the kitchen lights. The difference between the one new bulb and the other six bothered me. Here, at least, was something I could do something about.
I pulled down the six other trackheads and filled the sink with water. I cleaned the lenses and reflectors. (I gave up trying to clean the fixtures themselves years ago since, apparently, the heat bakes the dirt right on permanently.)
Until I replaced the one bulb on Sunday, I never really paid attention to how dirty they were. It seems something boils off the halogen capsule and condenses as a yellow-white powder on the lenses and reflectors. That, or something in the air gets baked in there or, now looking at the dead one, it may even be that the reflector coating boils off.
Anyway, cleaning the remaining lights helped. Now there’s only a 25% difference in light output between them and the new one. Still, it’s enough to be noticable and given they’re all the same age, they’re probably all going to burn-out soon. So I guess it’s time to get all new ones.
Last time I bought them, (in the early 90s), these low-voltage halogen reflector bulbs were $15 or $20 apiece. I was pleased to learn they’re now down to $4.50 each on the Homo Depot web site. Now I have to figure out if it’s easier to order online, take a bus out to the suburbs, or have Mark pick them up for me.
This solved the problem I’ve been having with seeing in the kitchen. You’d think that with seven fixtures totalling 350 watts over just six feet of counter that this wouldn’t be a problem. It had been, and it’s less so now. Another incentive to replace the bulbs.
Since it was such a joy to actually be able to see while I made dinner, that afterwards, I dug out the box with my regular bulbs and relamped everything. The desk lights went from 25w to 40w, the table lamps from 60w to 100w and the bedside lamp from 40w to 60w. I can see everywhere now!
Which got me thinking seriously about my aging eyes. It wasn’t that long ago, well, 20 years now that I think about it, that I used 15w bulbs in my desk lights and 25w ones in the living room table lamps. And that seemed too bright sometimes.
Okay. I just made an appointment with the eye doc for next week Thursday. $72. Yikes! I’ve put it off because of the cost and focus, generally, isn’t a major issue. Well, I’ll find out how much of this dimming is abnormal—I worry constantly about cataracts—and we’ll have a look at that spot on my optic nerve that she discovered last year.
