• Oscar Cunningham@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I don’t know how it is in other countries, but here in the UK we still have light sockets rated for the older incandescent bulbs that needed around 60W. But LEDs are much more efficient. Sometimes you see LED bulbs with absurd things like ‘5W = 60W’ written on them, meaning that it actually uses 5W, but it’s as bright as an old 60W bulb. You basically don’t need to worry about the safety limit of the socket, since the LEDs are way under it. Of course since the socket is rated for 60W you could plug in a 60W LED, which would be as bright as an 720W incandescent bulb.

    Which I suspect is what this person did to their poor fridge.

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.de
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      8 months ago

      Even then, where the hell did they get a 60W LED? LEDs with those kinds of power ratings are pretty hard to find, and they’re going to be fairly expensive as well.

      • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
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        8 months ago

        60W LED bulbs don’t exist because the form factor does not allow them to dissipate heat fast enough to keep LED chips that produce >50 W in heat below 150 °C. Fixtures of 20-100+ watts are available as COB modules that get mounted into work light reflectors where the entire back side is the heatsink. Their driver is very simple, so they are cheap but flicker at double the mains frequency. You can mount one in a fridge with adhesive heatsink compound and unsafe wiring modifications, assuming it fits under the cover if the socket is removed. An alternative is a long low-voltage LED strip wound all around the fridge’s interior several times.

        • Windshear@lemmy.ca
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          8 months ago

          This a a 100w LED light, not a 100w equivalent. It’s equivalent to a 1000w bulb. I bought a few to replace some old halogen shop lights.

          • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
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            8 months ago

            Yes, I know… E27 1000W bulbs of similar size have indeed existed. However, unlike a $3 5x8 cm 50W mains COB LED module, you cannot mount one in the intended space in common fridges.

            BTW, a little story regarding a 500W one: A Czechoslovak photographer needed one but like most heavy equipment in the Eastern bloc, they were never sold to individuals. He visited the factory for an alleged newspaper photoshoot and teamed up with my grandpa and other workers, who hung his desired bulb on his equipment backpack and pretended to sneakily follow him to the gatehouse. They laughed quietly, pointing at the bulb and thus socially engineering the doorman to enjoy the moment and forgo the usual pat-down. Officially, they just told anyone that the bulb had been a dud, which could not have been disproven.

    • Chadus_Maximus@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      What’s worse is having dimmable bulbs. A dimmer is required to have the maximum wattage of 120 W or so because there will always be some idiot who decides to put an incandescent bulb in and risks burning the house down.

      We could have dimmers a tenth of their size if people stopped being idiots. Instead we need to deal with those massive 4x4x4cm boxes that can’t be fitted into many walls.

    • stevestevesteve@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Maybe, but the light only turns on when it’s open, and when it’s open you have bigger cooling issues than the bulb wattage

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Probably yeah.

      (am gonna use European standards here sorry Ameribruvs.)

      Also, 200w bulbs that fit into fridge socket? The “40w max” is usually in normal E27 sockets. (The regular light bulb socket.) And the largest lamps for those I’ve seen are around 50-80w, and pretty much always sold as “growlamps”.

      Going to 200w you’d need an E40 socket. They’re about twice the size of the “regular” E27 (and E14 is the smaller “candle” socket, that’s like half the diameter of the regular one). Here’s what a 200w bulb looks like and remember that the socket is twice the size of a regular one. That bulb is like ~40cm long.

      Idk what socket fridges use though, but I seriously doubt it’s anything close to an E40 size.

        • Dasus@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Common?

          If we’re talking just at home, I’d have to disagree. But yeah I think probably fairly commonplace for industrial use maybe?

          I don’t recall ever seeing a single one being sold back when I used to be sent out for lightbulbs, because incandescents popping so often were a designed feature and as a kid I wasn’t going into proper hardware stores.

          40w and peeeerhaps 60w would be the most common ones, I’d say. Might vary ofc depending on where and who and when. But for like general house use in Finland I’d say those were definitely the most common ones. I’m guessing that’s sort of why lamps have the “most 40w” so that people use at most the 40w incandescent if someone still has those? Because newer ones draw so much less, there’s no need to design the schematics so that it can take 120w when most LED bulbs range from 7-15.

          I’m talking 40% of my arse so please do correct me for the mistakes I think I must have made

          • baelem@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            E27 100w incandescent bulbs were common in the US until the switch to LED. Looks like you can even still buy them, but at this price I’m guessing they’re new old stock that’s been hoarded to resell later: https://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-100-Watt-Basic-Light-Bulb-4-Pack-GE-41034-1710-lumen-A19/150144812

            Buuut the European grid runs at 230V, while the American grid runs at 120V (240V enters the home with a +120V and a -120V rail, and most circuits are attached across one of those and a neutral, except for high power appliance circuits).

            So our 100W bulbs are the equivalent of 50W European bulbs.

            I’m glad everything’s labeled in lumens now.

            • Dasus@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Oh right, true, forgot about that.

              Yeah ours is 230v and high power connections like stoves can utilise up to 480v I believe.

              My sauna uses 400v for example.

              Lumens are simpler when it comes to lighting, yeah. No more “equivalent to X watts” bullshit from marketing people if the general public understood lumens.

              • Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee
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                8 months ago

                I want to get a sauna, but I’m pretty sure my apartment is too small. I should get a cabin by the fjord so I can go from the sauna to the fjord.

                • Dasus@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  Here they come built-in to pretty much every apartment. Most apartment buildings built after like 1995 have them.

                  Even small student studios might have one.

                  I live in one of the worst areas in my city, in what is basically the cheapest available rental apartments. And I have a sauna.

                  And if your apartment doesn’t have one, the building certainly will and you can reserve it for yourself.

                  And all houses definitely have saunas.

                  We have more saunas than cars in Finland.

                  Sauna to cold fjord water would be great, highly recommend. (Though we don’t have fjords, we do have cold water.)

          • aulin@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I bought 100 W lamps in normal stores in Sweden back before leds were as common. Good for light stages when taking pictures.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      8 months ago

      If it’s really a 200 watt bulb, which I doubt, it won’t actually pull 200 watts, that’s just what it would pull if it was available but I doubt the fridge will pass that through. It would be a pretty stupid design otherwise.

  • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Okay but who puts bread in their fridge, what, do you live in a Soulsborne poison swamp level? It’s bread.

    Edit: The question was rhetorical, guys. 😅

    • Goatmom@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      I do sometimes actually. I live alone and don’t use a ton of bread, so keeping it in the fridge keeps it from molding quickly.

      • Pelicanen@sopuli.xyz
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        8 months ago

        It does however cause it to go stale much faster. Better idea is to keep it in the freezer and take out a little bread as needed, then thawing out more as you eat.

      • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        That’s fair - I bake, but my family eats it almost faster than I can make it. Skews my perception of bread.

        I see half loaves on the shelf sometimes these days, might be an idea

    • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      When I still lived with my parents, they kept bread in a room temperature and we quite often had to toss away moldy ones. When I moved on my own I started keeping it in the fridge and I don’t think I’ve had mold once. I toast it virtually every time anyway so doesn’t really matter. Also it’s dark rye bread which probably keeps differently than one made from while flour

    • nixcamic@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Our cat likes to eat bread and will tear the bag open to get at it. Had to keep it in the fridge.

      Also our kitchen had no cupboards with doors. Have since remedied that and now can keep bread in the cupboard.

    • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I do. I don’t have a breadbox (and they are butt ugly) and not wasting cupboard space for a loaf of bread, english muffins, etc.

    • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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      8 months ago

      I’m really hoping they’re just going by what they see on the packaging at Walmart where lightbulb wattage is shown as an equivalent measurement for lumens and that it’s not the actual power consumption. Fridge lightbulbs should not take as much power to run as an AC unit.

      • Lesrid@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Reminds of when the host of Technology Connections said that he has an electric car that he charges at home and his favorite Christmas lights still double his bill

      • rmuk@feddit.uk
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        8 months ago

        Go ahead and grab yourself a piping hot carrot from the refurnacerator

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      8 months ago

      200 lumens isn’t really that bright. I’m still not quite sure what the hell one lumen is based on but it’s not a particularly bright thing.

      What OP appears to have there is a “Night Sun” light normally fitted to police helicopters and search and rescue craft.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    You should get the right one ASAP, as the socket might not be able to cope with the power draw and heat.

      • You999@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        I’m leaning towards they cranked the exposure as refrigerator light bulbs are generally T7 or A15 bulbs and to my knowledge no one makes a bulb that bright in those sizes

        • bluemellophone@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Thanks, dad.

          Source: am a dad, and this post is ridiculously stupid. Nobody is getting that brightness unless they throw construction lights in there with an extension cord running outside.

      • Vinny_93@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Maybe it’s because it’s all LED in the EU now, we don’t really do the old tungsten lining or halogen anymore.

        • tiramichu@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          When you buy a lightbulb (at least here in the UK) it almost always still has the incandescent-equivalent on it as well as the actual wattage.

          People are still used to thinking in old terms that you want 100W for a ceiling lamp and 60W for a table lamp, for example.

          So this light in the fridge could be 200W equivalent but not actually 200W consumption.

          Thinking about it, lightbulb itself is at this point a ridiculously achronistic term, there’s nothing really ‘bulb’ about them anymore.

            • tiramichu@lemm.ee
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              8 months ago

              You’re right to be fair, a lot of them do retain that shape for purely aesthetic reasons, but it’s not a functional part of the light source any longer.

                • tiramichu@lemm.ee
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                  8 months ago

                  And sometimes acts as a diffuser for the light too, yeah. Just isn’t required for illumination purposes directly.

            • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              8 months ago

              I mean, they are just small diodes inside, if they have a bulb shape it’s just some plastic to have it be a familiar shape. I’d even argue most new light fixtures these days come in all sorts of shapes, and in my home, for example, I don’t even have a bulb shape.

        • Chadus_Maximus@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          That’s because my parents bought out all the incandescent bulbs. Something about not making them them like they used to. There are none left.

        • myster0n@feddit.nl
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          8 months ago

          Not quite all : I don’t think LED’s can withstand the heat of an oven. Though I don’t see the need for a 200W bulb in an oven. Maybe as the heating element in a toy easy-bake oven?

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
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      8 months ago

      I think they started marketing them in “equivalent wattage”

      I got this one crazy 10k or something lumen bulb a few years back - I set it up in the corner of my room. There were no shadows. Just total darkness to high noon at the equator. I wired it up as part of an alarm clock.

      Instead of little squares of LEDs, it was strips of them facing out in a twisty bulb. I want to say it was something like 15 watts

      An enclosed bulb with basically no heat sink and no chill is probably not a great design, it didn’t last long. It was cool though

    • Thrashy@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Incandescent bulbs over ~75W are banned in the US now, with a (glaring) exception for heat lamps. There are some shady manufacturers labeling ordinary high wattage lightbulbs as heat lamps to get around the restriction, but you’d have a hard time finding any of those in a big-box store.

  • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    The post made me laugh. On a serious note, those “maximum xxWatts” labels are there because that’s what the wiring in the appliance for that bulb can carry. You can exceed the maximum, but it will likely cause a fire.

    A few watts off might be fine, they usually over-build things, so if you get a 45W bulb for a 40W fixture it could be okay, but bluntly, are you willing to risk fire instead of just getting the right bulb?

    • Cort@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Not just the wiring but also the housing/shade/cover. They’re rated for incandescent heat output as well as electrical consumption.