To the Editor:
All I read about is the new light bulbs and how they will save me something. Well, I have acquired a large assortment of the new light bulbs which largely remain in their opened boxes. I try holding them in my hand, but no light comes out.
Put them in a fixture, you suggest. Well, I would if I could. No, my fixtures are not converted from whale oil lamps. They are no more than 20 to 25 years old, but the new bulbs will not fit in the outside flood light sockets.
They will not fit in the cans on my track lights, although one $25 bulb does fit in a can and provides a pleasant dim glow. Finally, they do not fit into my lamps due to the HARPS. This latter word is highly technical and the definition is not in my edition of the Compact OED or Unabridged Random House, but apparently it means the wire thing-a-ma-jig that supports the shade to the lamp.
I have had one success, however, as the new bulbs do fit in my bathroom fixtures which are open, forward-facing sockets formerly containing round, frosted 60-watt bulbs and now containing CFLs with more lumens and less watts. They make the bathrooms nice and cheery, and I find myself spending more time there rather than in my other dimming rooms.
Please help me with this problem. Do I spend some of my children’s inheritance to replace all my fixtures and lamps? Or should I just fade away in dimmer light, as I use my last old 100-watt bulbs and then go to 75 and then 50 and then a small candle?
Could some of the Island’s energy conservation groups please teach me how to keep up my lumens while saving watts, without going broke.
George Balco
Vineyard Haven
