A few days ago the incandescent bulb in the standing lamp that gives light to my computer work area burned out. Okay, I thought, here we go again.
It’s been increasingly more difficult than in days of yore to find bulbs for the lamp. It takes a three-way bulb, you know, three different levels of brightness. In truth, I only need the strongest setting, but I don’t dare insert a regular bulb for fear of a short or a fire.
On my next trip to the store, I wandered the lighting aisle, seeking in vain the incandescent bulb I needed.
Over the last year, most of the hideous mercury-tainted bulbs in the section have been replaced with LED bulbs, more expensive individually, but much better for our health. A few incandescent specialty bulbs remain, such as the ones in ovens, refrigerators, and microwave ovens. But there were no three-ways available.
Finally, I spotted a three-way bulb among the LED boxes. Instead of the common 50/100/150 watt using brightnesses, this one only uses 6/15/22 watts of electricity. I’m not used to rating my bulbs by the lumens, so I don’t know how this bulb compares to the incandescent ones, but it gives off 700/1600/2155 worth of brightness. Probably sufficient for my purposes.
I put it in my basket, cringing at the $18+ cost, but hope to get at least five years worth of light out of the bulb rated at ten years if I only use it for three hours a day.
What writer only uses their work space for three hours? Not me. However, I now have light, albeit blue-tinged instead of yellow. I hope I get used to that!
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