Lightbulb police? (was RE: Anyone off to VCF-UK)

On 03/06/10 19:28, Tony Duell wrote: Profit. The Engineer Says: "I just made a lightbulb that lasts a million hours!" The MBA Says: "NO! Don't tell ANYONE about it. It'll kill the sales of our existing two-thousand-hour-lifetime products!" The Engineer Says: "What if we split the tube from the ballast? Then if one fails, the customer can keep the other, working bit?" The MBA Says: "People don't want to buy two separate parts. Also it's more profitable if they have to swap the whole thing." I used to have a couple of first-gen "energy saver" fluorescent bulbs that were sent to me by (IIRC) National Power as part of some promotion or contest. They were two-piece units -- you had the screw or bayonet-fit ballast, and a separate, removable (via a 4-pin plug and latch arrangement) fluorescent tube. So when the fluoro tube died, you just bought a new one and swapped it over. Equally you could buy a new ballast, but only as part of a set with a new tube... I haven't seen anything like this for ages -- the Philips Softone bulbs are one solid, welded unit (they're built like laptop PSUs, no screws at all), and so are the GE energy-saver lamps if memory serves. I wonder how many "broken" bulbs get chucked in the bin that could be resurrected with either a new light or a new ballast. Seems they could be refurbished fairly easily if they were designed as modular units... -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/