In the home of a friend of mine (apartment building), there is a basement/shelter room. This room is allways open but very rarely visited (down to once in several years). In the room are several incandescent fixtures controlled by a switch

Some of the other building's residents when they go there they leave the light on ("afraid of darkness...") so every single time you go into that room, few months after you relamped it and never been in there, you find out that the light doesn't work as all the lamps are EOL. Problem is, that next time it might not be a trip to the basement in the day to relamp, but a trip in the night to hide from air raid, only to find out that the light doesn't work

I want an extreme cheap (in immediate investment, dont care about running costs) to make the lamps stop getting EOL so fast

I thought to install oversized lamps (100W or more instead of 60W) in the fixtures, and wire them in series so that each lamp is getting 120V instead of 240V, so will light less and last very long

How much lifetime boost would that give to a standard 240V double coiled 1000h life (at normal voltage) lamp ?

How to get somewhat more decent color temperature, and not the dull color of dimmed incandescent ?

Any better suggestions ?



There are also few floors of the staircase which are underground so "blank" (no apartments), which go from the earth level to the basement. In each floor there is incandescent fixture, connected together with all the other floors of the staircase ie. controlled by a timer (push button to switch on, after 1 min or so automatic off)

The lamps in the staircase dont do a lot of hours anually so they hold up better, but i dont know how much beter. When i goth there first time (about a year ago), 1 of 3 lamps was EOL, but i dont know how long they been there

Would they be a concern for EOL/no relamping in time too ? How much time they would likely to hold in a use lijke that ? (sometimes but not too often the system is abused - one of the neighbors gets one of the switches in the upper floor stuck in order to get unlimited light in the entrance floor, so the lamps light for few hours at a time)

Ash: 230V incandescent lamps have the longest life when burned base up. Also never use the mini version of them. The krypton incandescents will last even longer.
You can also use fluorescent batten with electronic starters plug in replacement for glow starters (Pulstarters), as currently, they have longer life, and also improve the ballast and lamp life.

The fixtures are meltlights cast into the concrete ceiling (1970's construction) so lamps horizontl only unless i also replace the fixtures

Solution must be ultra cheap - few NIS / lamp, which means basically to stay with incandescents in those meltlights. Any fluorescent / CFL / whatever else solutiuons are too expensive

I have no effective solution for such a low cost.

Operation at half the rated voltage should (I have not tested this) increase lamp life at least 10 times (probably more), but the color temperature will be horrible (tested). I don't know any way to get long life and decent color temperature if the initial cost has to be kept minimal.

Best would be using occupancy sensors to control the lamps. There would be no switch for people to play with, the light would be there always when someone is there.
Using quality lamps and loosening artificially their cement (loose glass bulb in it's socket reliably deter lamp thieves, while the lamp still operate well) proved here to lead to more then 2..3year life of even horizontally placeed incandescent lamps on stairway used by all inhabitants of the 4 story building.
For the lamp life is best the base down vertical (the base is kept cool), but for the lumen maintenance base up (the metal condense n the base, where it does not obstruct the light).

Running 230V lamps on 115V would make them to last way longer then a century, but there should be no manufacturing defect and/or imperfection, so you should really use only quality lamps. Be aware, then this does not work for halogens, as the colder running lamp cause the halogens to more severely attack the tungsten close to the seal (where it become colder), so in best case it mean the same life as on full power. So krypton lamps would be the best choice.
But the efficacy would drop way more, you would need ~300..400W lamp (so running at about 90..130W) to replace 40W running at the nominal voltage. In real life I would guess no more then about 10..15000hours life due to lamp defects (other then filament evaporation), with the reliability severely affected by the fact, then single lamp fault cause two of them to stop working.

I would guess way better choice would be to use some higher quality long life hi-rel krypton bulb (sold as e.g. signal lamps), the 75W (e.g. the Osram SIG1543LL; rated for 5500hours life for 2% failure rate, what mean >10khour median life) would replace ordinary 50W (540lm).

But none of the options is cheap. Rewiring to series pairs would cost a lot of work with questionable result, signal lamps are way more expensive then normal one (I would guess comparable or even higher then best quality CFL's or halogens, however way more reliable), the occupancy sensors costing some money as well (but their cost would be comparable to the signal lamps).
And don't forget to consider the state of the wiring, if that would not be the major cause of faults, thorough inspection (and repairs of faulty spots) would help the reliability a lot.

I suppose a notice on the door instructing people to switch the lights off when they leave (surely if they're not in the room, fear of the dark shouldn't be a factor?) would be too simple.

Fact is that you don't get something for nothing.

If you're looking for extreme long-life, I'd suggest looking at conversion to MV lamps which are well known as lasting for ages, or possibly a half-way solution with blended mercury lamps.  These are both going to require purchasing of either pricey lamps in the case of the blended lamps, or an admittedly comparatively cheap ballast and pretty cheap lamp in the case of the MV solution.

Wiring lamps in series is a possibility, but you're going to see a huge drop in light output for a given wattage and with the lamps in series, one fault (early failure of a lamp, someone smashes one accidentally etc) and you could be plunged into complete darkness.  Then not only do you have no light, but you could have to check several fixtures to track down the cause of the fault.  Given that this is somewhere that you want to have ready to go in an emergency situation, I'd definitely shy away from that approach.  Something else to remember, is that if you're running higher than normal wattage lamps on the wrong voltage is that they're going to pull a lot more current than your lower wattage lamps on account of the colder filament - be careful that you don't overload the wiring and/or switching equipment.

One possibility on the voltage change side though would be to wire some standard general purpose diodes in series with the lamps (inverse-parallel strings do there's no actual rectification taking place), these will drop around 1.7V per diode and they're available for next to nothing so it wouldn't be hard to drop 10V or so from the lamp's supply voltage, which could have quite an effect on the lifetime at the expense of some efficiency.

Rough service incandescents usually last longer in normal applications than conventional incandescents and are cheaply available, so that might be worth a look.

Given how cheap incandescents are, rather than trying to make them last forever, would scheduled re-lamping be an option?  Just assume that once per month or so that the lamps are to be replaced?  Assuming a 1000 hour lamp life, that's 41 days if burning 24/7 - obviously the figure should be adjusted for the lifetime of the lamps in question.

If going with a scheduled re-lamping program, linear fluorescents may also be worth consideration.

I reckon the most economic, simplest and reliable solution here would be conversion to MV.  Ballasts are cheap compared to many other HID types, the gear is reliable, the lamps are cheap and last ages, and they tend to fail through lumen depreciation over time in most cases rather than just dropping dead.

I think the MV's are not good here. They are quite expensive lamps, they have way too high output for corridors like stairs or so and they would have to be left burned all the time (or for whole night, if the given place have enough daylight). In this the fluorescents would be better, as they are made with reasonable output.
But the application as described ask for few minutes per start, so no discharge lamp could be viable here. The only problem (both electricity, as well as maintenance cost) is to ensure they are switched OFF, when not in use.
In my experience any sign would only spread the noise and make users upset, without really helping the matter, they would feel, like you treat them as idiots (I guess, if you would ask everybody, each of them would swear, then it was not him, but someone else, who left there the light ON).

I would really insist, then the best option would be to install the PIR sensors. You could easily "sell" them as a "comfort upgrade" (so to not upset anybody), even when their main purpose is to tackle the carelessness of some of the property users...

This room is 3rd floor underground, concrete staircase with blank walls, quite wet, 1970s home, and there was a structural failure in another home not far from it, involving the "same" staircase so maybe they know the story too...

So i suppose it is scary for some. I suppose the problem is like that : They think NOW of how scared they will be when they go there next time, so they leave the light on

The switch for the lights inside the room is right by the entrance. The staircase leading to it has lamp on every floor (total 3 floors, 3 lamps) which is working on the same circuit as the rest of the staircase

The staircase lamps are controlled by push buttons. You push, light is on for about a minute (controlled by a thermoelectric timer device), then off

All living floors have the button on every floor. The staircase to the basement though only have one button at the entrance of the home (the same button that is pressed to switch the light on when you want to go upstairs), and the other one is by the entrance to the basement room, 3 floors underground

So i suppose the other fear is that the timer will switch off while they are in the middle of the 3-floor stairs, having to go more than a floor up or down to switch the light back on



This i can solve in 2 ways :

Wiring a new push button on every floor in that staircase (there is a connections box by the light fixture on every floor, so i suppose that i can tap there to the wire that;s going to the button on the bottom floor. The timer device is in the entrance floor)

Disconnecting the lights on that stairs from the main staircase circuit, and installing it on 2 2-way switches in place of the 2 buttons - so that it stays on for as long as you want. Problem is, that i have to add wires to the pipe in the wall (with the existing wiring i'd have to connect this as H-bridge system which is dangerous and i ain't gonna do that), and i dont know whether the fishtape would go freely in the pipe

But either way i am not sure that it will really help since some of the folks living in that home are quite ignorant



MV's + ballasts are expensive, and have unacceptable long restrike time

The light fixtures are plastic meltlights cast into the concrete during construction. Rated to 75W, and allready melted from running with 75W lamps (and cannot be replaced since they are in the concrete, only new fixtures can be installed on top of the "holes"). There is no chance they'll withstand a SBMV, and a replacement fixture (even a meltlight) is way too expensive

There are enough fixtures for several pairs of series lamps - so if 2 lamps are out there still are more lamps in the same room. The real problem i see is the awfull color temperature - and even more in a room that allready is scary to some (as can be seen), while in the meantime bombs are falling 3 floors above them

Scheduled relqamps - a problem both for keeping up with the schedule (yep even we forget), and the upcoming incandescent ban (incandescents allready cost 2 times what they used to 6 months ago)

Diodes - problem to install safely in the fixture (they'll be exposed and touchable when relamping), and wonder if they won;t fail from the flash at lamp EOL

Linear fluorescents - expensive



The room in question is the basement itself as well as the staircase - a 125W MV would be reasonable for that room, but not acceptable due to warm up and restrike time (especially restrike - In that region line voltage brownouts and momentary dropouts are quite common)

The room is 3 floors underground - there is no sunlight even in the day

PIR have several problems :

Expensive

I wouldn't trust their reliability - can fail from their own fault, a surge, moisture (there is plenty...), spider building a nest on the lens, unlimited other causes

The room is acting as shelter, even in the night - the occupants may want to switch off the lights and go to sleep in it (so you dont want somebody moving his hand or going to the toilet with a flashlight to switch the light on), or go to sleep with the lights on (so you dont want the lights to switch off on their own)

Hmm, really does sound like the only real option you've got then is improving on the incandescents which are in use - rough service lamps sound like they might be the best way to go. 

At least there are several lamps in the vicinity, so keeping a small stock of lamps which are readily accessible and a (maintained!) flashlight in the vicinity may also be worthwhile - if you can be sure that both of the above won't disappear anyway.

It's a tricky one to solve to be honest, especially when the starting point is simply people leaving the lights on and there aren't any real resources which can be thrown at it.

Sounds like the ideal solution would be to gut the entire lot down there and convert to an AC/DC system with battery backup and good mains filtering.  Obviously though that's very expensive comparatively to set up and requires maintenance, so really isn't applicable here.

If the timer trigger button is not in each floor, it is a building design fault - it simply have to be, so if adding few of them would solve the issue, do install them. From your last description I understood it will solve the problem...


Using long life and durable incandescents would be necessary there. Don't forget, then when bombs are falling around, everything is shaking like hell, I guess the use of the lights buried in the concrete mass had the good reason - such concept have way better chance to keep working during all that shaking (shockwaves are able to reach few G). Anything bolted on the surface could easily break off, as it would not have enough support.
I would guess investment in small stock of rugged incandescent lamps (e.g. the traffic signal lamps; these are not as cheap, but at least would be able to work there; and as specialty lamps, they are excluded from the bans) would pay off in working solution.

Other option would be the usage of all the time burning fluorescents, but the issue would be how to attach them so, they won't fall off during the shaking.

But be clear, then for such rather difficult problems the thorough solutions either cost some money, or does not work properly. Don't expect you would be able to fix three such floors for few $$ equivalent and few minutes of work...

Would it be better to add a lighted button on every floor, or to install 2-way switching (from 2 locations) in place of the 2 existing buttons ?

Pros button on every floor :  Light can be switched on on every floor

Pros 2-way switches : Light does not go off automatically



Thwe lamp used for trafic lights here is Osram SIG1534 (it does not contain "LL" in the etch so i dont know whether it is the one you mentioned earlier), it has a /\/\/\/\/ shaped filament with a lot of supports

The bombs used are Katyushas and sometimes Grads - i dont know what impact they'll make 3 floors underground, and whether it is relevant (perhaps higher chance to damage overhead wiring in the street, so immediate darkness) rather than lamp EOL

I think i'll visit there today so i'll post pics

So the bombs are relatives of the ones I used to work with........ Grandfather made them, dad delivered them airfreight to Italy and Germany and I worked on the delivery systems to make holes in the ground in places distant.

You might want to look at installing a 1000VA dimmer in line to the lamps, and dim them to around 180v. this will give a much longer life from good quality lamps. You probably will have to enclose the dimmer entirely inside a metal box over one of the conduit access points to prevent fiddling with it once set, but it will do the job.  This would be ideal for a LED retrofit, using the Phillipd LED lamps, though the fixtures would probably need ventilation for the lamps not to run too hot.

Have you considered to drill and mount a bulkhead 2D or PL fitting over each cast base, as the will not be easily loosened if you use a decent wall anchor with a large washer  ( sold as fender washers in assorted sizes at a hardware store) to spread the load exerted on the plastic of the fitting. Use a good lamp like GE or Phillips ( not Eurolux or a cheepie lamp) and keep a few spares around. Bonus is lower power use, and if left on all night not too much of a problem. Frequent switching will reduce lamp life though quite a bit, you might just consider this for permanent lighting ( via a time switch or photocell) of the landings to give all night light to the top stairwell or two at least, there should be enough spill light to get to the bottom easily. At the bottom a conversion to a bulkhead lamp would be best, using the same lamps. This would probably be the lowest cost, if you consider the running cost of the lamps and life therof, the dimmer would be second best, though the high power dimmers are rather expensive, having just replaced a faulty one that lasted 15 years today.

Some updates :

This time it is not just that all the lamps are EOL, but they also hired an (...) electrician to repair something else, and he demolished the electrical panel in the upper floor leaving a lot of wires disconnected in the process, and left it like that. After connecting some of them back, there is power in the basement

Only some of the incandescents blew this time, thats an improvement. I'll relamp the rest anyway soom since their filaments are looking quite rough allready

For now i just put in new incandescents to replace 2 of the blown ones (did not have any more at hand), so that most of the place is lit

There are some destroyed fixtures that need replacement too



For all you urbex lovers, i took enough pics in there to fill an album (and possibly will take more when i complete the work). Starting to upload soon !

The issue with underground structures and bombs nearby are shockwaves spreading in the soil. These have few mm till about a cm amplitude, but great acceleration, so the concrete structures survive that, but most heavier things only bolted to the surface are kicked out. So they have to be either lightweight and really strongly attached (e.g. "melted" in the material) or hanging, so they have some sort of shock absorbers.
For the bomb to kick down the power line i have to hit either some pole or the distribution station. But to cause the shockwaves, it is enough to fall within few 100's m around...

With the light controls: In any way I would make a control button on each floor.
Converting to multi-way switches (so to allow control from each point) would require one extra wire (assume present push-switches are connecting the control wire to the neutral, so 3 wires are there - Neutral, Control and the LampPhase), so when it is possible to put one extra in, I think it would work well, provided people would not forget to switch it off. If the present wiring already uses 4 wires (separate PE does not count; control buttons are on the phase), converting to multiway switches would be quite easy with present wires.

Other option would be to replace the timer relay by the "toggle relay" (each time the coil is activated, it toggle). That would work with present wiring, but each button would be able to turn it both ON and OFF and it would be very easy to add control buttons (just connect in parallel with present ones).

OSRAM traffic lamps: The "LL" suffix mean Long Life. Standard (without that suffix) are rated for 3000hours/2% failures, LongLife (with "LL") for 5500hours/2% failures, while standard SIG1543 emit 600lm (the SIG1543LL version only 540lm).
I think both would be suitable...