Straight Mini Fluorescent Tube

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
Push-in connections on electrical receptacles are intermittent at best. I think they cause sparks or a fire that welds the wires together and extingueshes the fire.
 

marshallf3

Joined Jul 26, 2010
2,358
I use 3000k compact fluorescent light bulbs in my home. They appear pure white, not pink like warm white and not blue like cool white.
But I can't buy them anymore so I selected 3500k which has a trace of blue colour.

You would think that the higher is the temperarture then the better is the pure white colour but no, it is the amount of blue colour (like blue sky?).
They've improved the phosphor blend on the newer lamps so the 5K's aren't nearly as offensive as they were in the beginning but then again I tend towards Sylvania Octron bulbs rather than Phillips or any of the off brands. They won't settle for anything else in the offices and some other areas where color rendition is semi-critical but I'm quite happy as you are with the warmer whites upstairs in my 4,000 ft*sq office and work area, they just don't seem to strain these old eyes as much. They cost a bit more now than the 5Ks but I buy in volume and it's my call.
 

marshallf3

Joined Jul 26, 2010
2,358
Push-in connections on electrical receptacles are intermittent at best. I think they cause sparks or a fire that welds the wires together and extingueshes the fire.
Not talking about back wired duplex outlets, even on a branched 15A circuit I still use the old bend the wire exactly around the screw terminal method and a couple of wraps of tape around the entire outlet.

Those Wal-Nuts are ideal for simple stuff like replacing ballasts or in what you know will be low current situations. Never had a problem with them when using solid wire all the way up to #12 but as with anything they're Cu specific, if I ever run into any aluminum wire it goes out the door no matter how much of a pain it may be to replace. I'm not licensed to work on homes anyway, just my own commercial environment and unlike the old buildings everything was copper and according to the codes at the time. I've got a lot of 208 and 480 that has no neutral and just relies on the conduit for ground so I leave it as it is after I've made sure the conduit is still making good connection and usually go through the whole run to make sure any conduit connectors are tight, anything new I install gets both a neutral and a separate ground wire in the conduit.

This is a handy screwdriver to have around just because of the way you can make an almost perfect bend provided you've stripped the wire to almost exact length:

http://www.service.kleintools.com/T... SCREWDRIV-SCREWDRV-WRBNDCABTP/Product/605-4B

I learned a long time ago never to scrimp when it comes to buying tools.
 

marshallf3

Joined Jul 26, 2010
2,358
I also use only Osram-Sylvania compact fluorescent light bulbs.
CFLs are different than T-8 lamps, doesn't seem to be the same attention to detail or phosphor accuracy. I use a very few of them in certain places but I'm quite excited about these new 105W ones that run directly off of 277V, I think they're made by TCL and are relatively new to the market. There were a lot of attempts to replace the older 400W MH lamps and still use the ballasts in the fixtures but they cost a fortune, weren't all that reliable and you still had that ballast in the circuit wasting all the power. If the ratings can be believed I can get three years out of them when I could get 4 or 5 out of the HIDs but they're not much more expensive than the HIDs and I don't have to deal with ballast failures at 26' up in the air.

TCL is coming up in the lighting world. They had a limited amount of products out that were far from the best but went into it whole hog a year or so ago and stand to capture a fair share of the market if they keep after it.
 
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