Just wondering, if you guys use your old light bulbs that you got from restores, and thrift shops, or not use them but collect them. Thanks.

Use in the "once in a Blue Moon" applications, where i want them for e.g. test setup or some other special one-off purpose that needs to show the lamp. Use modern stuff in everyday and other applications

This way, the "electrical" lamp life will most likely outlast either the lamp's appearance (corroding cap, rubbing off etch from handling, ..) or the lamp by accidentally smashing it during handling (not that i want it to happen, but it can happen), and is not being "wasted"

I use things unless it is unbelievably rare... in which case I use them less often... but everything gets used one way or another...

Well things like westinghouse F40’CW  migjt as well
Enjoy it.  It took me 24 years to eol a pair of tubes
From 1984.  Using them in a garage swutch all the
Time snd beling left on.  My childhood abuse
Many times over to watch start up flicker

Same way with westy life gaurds enjoy them using
Those DX mercs,  those Clear westy i notice
Getting hard to come by. 

I rotate what I use that is harder to come by. Like right now I'm burnin an eye 50w clear MV for the winter because I have a few of them. I'll transition to orange led when the bugs start coming out in spring, and for the summer I'll burn 18w sox then back to orange led in the fall, etc. that way everything gets some time on it and I get to enjoy it but not all at once. I burn HPS all the time though since it is cheap and easy. When hid starts to become scarce I'll be using Amber LEDs much more.

Depends what it is, but I largely use modern LED screw in bulbs, and modern low-mercury fluorescents, though I have cases of older lamps I 'could' use. 

I'm hanging onto some incandescent bulbs, but when it comes to fluorescent.. I like running them to EoL Even the old ones. 

I always try to run up the lamps that I have occasionally. We have a Lamp Of The Day here three or four times a week, where we'll run up one of the discharge lamps, most often LPS because we love the warm yellow glow  

I have a test box for the incandescent lamps that is connected to a Variac, so I can run up lamps of any voltage, although I tend not to run up the lamps that I only have a single example of too often, I've had them fail on me too often for that

If I have more than one of a particular type of lamp, then one will be safely stored away and the other will go on display and run when possible.

I use them all, but I do tend to get spares which sit on the shelf until the one in use goes EOL, I've only got three lamps that I don't use, but I've powered them all up more then once, but I've had them for like the last thirty years so it's not that they are rare but they have sentimental value..

Lights were made to be used, so use them and enjoy them..

I use mine very rarely. Some would be impossible to replace if they were broken, so I store them away. (I also don't have a lot of time to 'tinker'...I'm married.  )

I use mine very rarely. Some would be impossible to replace if they were broken, so I store them away. (I also don't have a lot of time to 'tinker'...I'm married.  )

I'm married to, tinker before you have kids, the time to tinker disappears quicker when they show up and take 20 plus years to leave...

I'm married to, tinker before you have kids, the time to tinker disappears quicker when they show up and take 20 plus years to leave...

Hey, we're married as well  

No kids though, (a) we're not that way inclined, and (b) we prefer cats  

I'm married to, tinker before you have kids, the time to tinker disappears quicker when they show up and take 20 plus years to leave...

No kids...just pets. My wife likes me to spend time on things she likes, so to keep her happy, I do them...most of the time. (She thinks its cool that I'm on this site 'talking' to fellow nutters though. )

No kids...just pets. My wife likes me to spend time on things she likes, so to keep her happy, I do them...most of the time. (She thinks its cool that I'm on this site 'talking' to fellow nutters though. )

I suppose I'm lucky that Sammi shares my interest in lamps

No kids...just pets. My wife likes me to spend time on things she likes, so to keep her happy, I do them...most of the time. (She thinks its cool that I'm on this site 'talking' to fellow nutters though. )

You need to find corresponding hobbies, my wife really likes to cook, so I learned how to restore cast iron, so now we are allowed to visit all the junk stores and re-store to look for new cast iron things and every once and while those are also stores where you get to find older odd lights and fixtures, and vintage copper pans are an awesome distraction to the all the lights in the cart and when they are cleaned up and re-tinned shining someone forgets about the lights and ballasts I just picked up...