What happend to INEXPENSIVE light bulbs

[Mustang65]

I was at Lowes today, picking up parts for my various projects. The one project that I need to start is the calibrating my GEM with the Electric Companies usage. That is ASSUMING (hate that word) that the electric companies meter is correct. The GEM is currently displaying lower usage than the Electric Companies meter.

So I walked over to the Lowes Light bulb display in search for (2) old style 100 watt incandescent light bulbs. It slipped my mind that they are not producing them any longer, or at least not supposed to be producing them. 40 feet of 8 foot high shelves only displayed one small box of 100 watt incandescent light bulbs of the "ROUGH SERVICE" variety. As I got down to the floor level to get a couple, I noticed that they had a price of $4.98 EACH. I asked for assistance and "What you see is what you get"!!!!

OK, I could have made a circuit that was 100 watts, but I in my lack of youth, decided to drop $10. So now I will veryify the 100 Watt claim, shut down all my breakers except for (1) 100 watt light on each leg and see what the GEM tells me. Maybe I can return them after the test. Probably not as I will keep them for any FUTURE comparisons.


I know that I could have went to Amazon/eBay and ordered them from China, with a month shipping delay.

[Teken]

I was at Lowes today, picking up parts for my various projects. The one project that I need to start is the calibrating my GEM with the Electric Companies usage. That is ASSUMING (hate that word) that the electric companies meter is correct. The GEM is currently displaying lower usage than the Electric Companies meter.

So I walked over to the Lowes Light bulb display in search for (2) old style 100 watt incandescent light bulbs. It slipped my mind that they are not producing them any longer, or at least not supposed to be producing them. 40 feet of 8 foot high shelves only displayed one small box of 100 watt incandescent light bulbs of the "ROUGH SERVICE" variety. As I got down to the floor level to get a couple, I noticed that they had a price of $4.98 EACH. I asked for assistance and "What you see is what you get"!!!!

OK, I could have made a circuit that was 100 watts, but I in my lack of youth, decided to drop $10. So now I will veryify the 100 Watt claim, shut down all my breakers except for (1) 100 watt light on each leg and see what the GEM tells me. Maybe I can return them after the test. Probably not as I will keep them for any FUTURE comparisons.


I know that I could have went to Amazon/eBay and ordered them from China, with a month shipping delay.

If you plan to fine tune the GEM you need to have three validated resistive loads. I used a range from 1~50, 50~100, 150~ 500, 700~1500, 1600~1875 watts.

I used many *Reference Incandescent* bulbs which were confirmed using Ohms Law, Fluke Clamp Meter, Fluke Spectrum Analyzer, Fluke DMM, Fluke Energy Management System. Along with various inline (Series) amp meters.

Obviously, a little over kill but I wanted the highest accuracy and you're only doing this once anyways so might as well get it right!

Before you do the CT calibration ensure the PT is adjusted to reflect the line voltage from the main service feed. Good luck and let us know how things turn out and keep in mind what ever change you make should be validated for all three power ranges from low, mid, high.