150W lamp with dimmer switch - what to do?

1. 77

   jenniferrpoveyposted 11 years ago

   150W lamp with dimmer switch - what to do?
   
   I have a floor lamp which has a 150W bulb with a dimmer. Well, incandescent 150W bulbs are no longer legal to be sold. I was not able to stock up on them because they were nearly impossible to get even BEFORE they were phased out. Using a non-dimmable CFL bulb is dangerous even if I could get one to fit. I can't find a 150W equivalent dimmable CFL and hear they suck. This is a perfectly good lamp...any ideas other than rewiring it with a normal switch, which is really beyond my DIY capabilities? The last bulb died today, so my lamp is landfill unless I can solve this.

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2. 78

   Eric Calderwoodposted 11 years ago

   As far as I know from the news article and video I saw on this, at the present time there is no option for using your lamp.  But, if you like it a lot you could store it until such time as the new light bulb technology catches up with your old style lamp (or maybe until there is enough public outcry over how unsafe for the environment the new CFL mercury laden light bulbs are that they start selling incandescent ones again).

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   1. 77

      jenniferrpoveyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I wasn't planning on using a CFL anyway. Dimmable CFLs suck. But I have no place to store the lamp and would HAVE to buy a new one anyway.

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3. 68

   ShootersCenterposted 11 years ago

   The newer LED bulbs are dimmable, use 85% less electricity, are should last 17-25 years but they are expensive. You can also can the socket switch over to a standard switch if you know how. Sometimes you can get lucky and find the old bulbs at small hardware stores where everything is over priced.

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   1. 77

      jenniferrpoveyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      The problem is that the socket will not take A19 bulbs, only A21 bulbs. Does anyone know of a dimmable LED that will fit in such a socket.

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   2. 68

      ShootersCenterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Jennifer, I checked and found you can get a Slyvania 150W A21 replacement 13141 at www.everlumen.com If there price sounds high take the catalog # and info to a local lighting company and see what they can do for you.

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4. 60

   ackman1465posted 11 years ago

   This submittal reminds me of the Seinfeld episode in which there is the shower heads in NYC are decreed to be "water-saving", only.... and Kramer makes contact with a man from Eastern Europe who sets him up with some shower heads that gush water just as "old" ones did....
   
   C'mon... there are 150W incandescent bulbs to be found EVERYWHERE....

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   1. 77

      jenniferrpoveyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Not here. I found some, but nobody in this neighborhood wants to sell them. Even the local Walmart (which isn't that close) doesn't. Target doesn't. It's one of those things. However, I'd absolutely LOVE to put a dimmable LED in that lamp...

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