Lava lamps and the death of the incandescent

[Reed]

Given the push these days for the use of compact fluorescent bulbs, and the recent legislation banning incandescents ( http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2007-12... ) , has anyone out there found a suitable replacement bulb that still allows the lava to ooze? I know CFLs will get hot eventually, but bulb size and the extended period of time necessary to heat the lava seems to make them an impractical choice.

Thoughts? Has anyone succesfully used a CFL in a lava lamp? Anyone aware of a specialty LED or CFL bulb that incorporates a heating element?

[Reed]

I thought UV rays degraded the lava?

[Kelly Flaskerud]

I say we all protest and get those fools on Capitol Hill to write an exception for Lava collectors... I'm sure LW would be on board with that!

[Brian]

I was wondering that a few days ago, time to stock up on regular bulbs. Just another reason for the government to take away a freedom. floresent sucks, had them, they make colors look like crap. Then they wouldn't get hot enough for the lava to flow, i would think. DOWN WITH FLORESENTS!!! ya, they save on electricity but dang, I like to see colors of things they way they need to look. some say they don't change color but they still make things look a tad on the green side.

[Reed]

The fluorescent bulbs come in two color tones- one is ore of a "cool white" which looks really cold, the other is closer to the warm yellow/rose color of an incandescent. I wouldn't mind CFLs if I could get the lava to flow.

[Brian]

ok looked around and found an article about this topic. it tells a great deal about the flourecent bulbs and I guess to get the lava to flow, one would have to use a mega 150w flourecent to make it an equivilant. http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=8868

[Reed]

I guess if the new bases will fit the old globes and look identical to the old bases we will be safe.

[Brian]

I hope that our older lava lamps will be secure for the future, would be sad if I can't use them. It wouldn't be the same if it moved without a light, you couldn't see it that well. guess will have to import bubls from somewhere else, unless they make that illegal.

[Reed]

I am by no means an electrical or mechanical engineer, but it seems it wouldn't be too difficult to fabricate an adapter that screwed into the light socket and that had a heating element that would heat the globes. Once the problem of heat is solved, any light source could be used. A single circular heating element could replace the heat given off by the incandescent lightbulb.

[Eben King]

I'm making replacement bases for some "motion lamps" out of 3" PVC pipe. There's no electrical/thermal problem in using a CFL instead of an incandescent, so long as they use the same amount of power. And 25W of CFL makes for a pretty big bulb. Unfortunately, I didn't allow room for one, sticking to the original dimensions. The only advantages they would have would be greatly increased lifetime, and a _heck_ of a lot of visible light. You could probably make holes in the base (or set it lower in a starlight base) and read by the thing.