Some competing systems are, quite frankly, garbage.

I can vouch for that. What's installed on uncontrolled jobs is what the lowest cost bidder tenders on the build. By uncontrolled I mean standards are barely met, if that.

The problem is that outages here are regular occurrences, for a variety of reasons. That means that the batteries should not be of a type which has a memory and ideally around here, staying on all night.

I work almost exclusively in mid to high-rise apartment buildings, and for the last ten years have not seen a single Bayonette Cap lamp base being fitted anywhere. Every light, untill recently when L.E.D. light fittings became common, were of the Edison Screw type.

Recently, I tried to purchase a miniture (height) B.C. lamp for my daughter's table lamp. The store owner told me that B.C. lamps were not being produced anymore? Sounds fanciful. What is the real situation?

Wayne.

The store owner told me that B.C. lamps were not being produced anymore?

Total nonsense and that man is a fool. It's a classic example of not knowing the market. Most imported light fittings contain ES sockets even though a lot of them come from countries that, like Australia, have traditionally used the British bayonet cap for globes. Homes that are purchased built only to lockup stage are fitted with standard HPM or Clipsal batten holders and these only come with bayonet sockets.

All exterior light fittings that are designed to use discharge lamps have always been fitted with ES sockets because some of the lamps are polarised - not necessarily for the voltage but because the ignitor has to be wired to the lamp a certain way. Due to the comparative rarity of ES sockets, this also stopped people buying them and fitting them directly to 240V via a BC light socket which would simply destroy the lamp.

The main problem that I have always seen with ES sockets is that if they are wired incorrectly it is possible to get an electric shock off the socket. The active must, by law, be wired to the tip and not the screw of the cap and this doesn't always happen. When I worked at Gladesville Hospital (see separate thread on the ghosts there) those old sandstone buildings were originally gas-lit but in the 1930s when the electricity supply became more widespread the place was wired up and the fitting of choice was the old schoolhouse fittings with milky glass shades and brass galleries with either fixed ones or on jack chains. Depending on the size of the fitting and the size of the room, these were a mix of BC, ES or GES. The latter two being preferred at the time to stop employees pinching the lamps for their homes and that was for the same reason that government-owned petrol was dyed blue instead of purple. When we went through, removing these fittings and converting to fluorescent lighting, I couldn't help notice that the active wire was connected to the screw of any ES sockets about 50% of the time.

Fittings with LED modules rather than globes will one day make all sockets obsolete. A standard needs to be developed (which won't happen because governments around the world don't give a toss about e-waste) where it is possible to unplug a driver and replace it rather than replacing a whole fitting when a LED-equipped fitting dies. When this happens, 9.9 times out of 10 it is the driver rather than the diodes that have succumbed.

Until the day all sockets are obsolete, it is my opinion that globes will remain available for all kinds of sockets, SBC, BC, SES, ES, GES and the two-pin type for halogen lamps and the small desk lamps. I was at Bunnings at Alexandria today and they have four huge aisles dedicated to lamps and light fittings. Believe it or not, they actually had most of the items in stock too.

Since my last broken light globe I have heard that a potato pushed into the remaining globe base and used as a handle to turn the base will do the job. I would guess you might have to trim the potato to fit some sockets in order to get to the globe's base. I'm guessing a carrot might work in some cases, too.

I don't know how well this would work, but I'd really want to be sure the power is off.

Lindsey

Neither a potato or a carrot would be strong enough for some of the sockets I've cleared of globe bases.

One thing I do recommend however is that anything wet and porous not be used at all for a job like this. If your socket is switched via the neutral wire instead of the active - your dead. Some long nose pliers with 1000V insulated handles are definitely a better choice.

"Some long nose pliers with 1000V insulated handles are definitely a better choice."

My choice too, but didn't work for a fridge light with an aluminium cap in a plastic socket. The cap collapsed and jammed in solid. Winkled out with great difficulty. Always worked for brass caps.