Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!olivea!orc!inews!cmdnfs!bhoughto From: bhoughto@cmdnfs.intel.com (Blair P. Houghton) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: incandescent light bulb life extender Message-ID: <1289@inews.intel.com> Date: 8 Dec 90 01:35:37 GMT References: <1990Dec4.042524.14018@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <30670@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <10183@pogo.WV.TEK.COM> Sender: news@inews.intel.com Organization: Intel Corp, Chandler, AZ Lines: 30 In article <10183@pogo.WV.TEK.COM> bobt@pogo.WV.TEK.COM (Bob Tidrick) writes: >filiment but when it goes out, which is every couple of months or so, I give >it a bump and it works again. BOY, HOW DID THE BULB MANUFACTURERS LET THIS ONE >SLIP BY. Could you email me a copy of that bulb? Ours keep on going poof on us... :-) >Another question. How can they sell Christmas lights for as little as $ 0.10 >and a 40 watt bulb sells for nearly $2.00 ? Can it all be Volume? The design >is basicly the same. There is only a few cents more material. I think we are >getting ripped off two ways here. Doubtful. Bulbs are a commodity, probably with a minimal margins, being supplied by several companies. More likely it's not "volume" but volume :). A 40-watter takes up about ten times the space a little blinky xmas light does. It costs therefore about ten times as much to transport and store the things. They're also about a tenth as robust, so losses due to breakage are likely higher. Plus, the capital equipment used to manufacture the bigger bulbs has to be much more complicated, and there's probably more labor involved. Then also, I'll bet the regular bulbs are made in the USA, and the christmas lights...well... --Blair "Jin-gle-bells jin-gle-bells jin-gle all the-- Uh, who tripped on the tree?"