Is there a supplier where you can purchase various standard voltage lamps that you can then re-shell into the existing fittings of the dead lamps? I think that’s going to have to be the future for keeping these old sets going. Great channel btw, nice to know I’m not the only one that loves these old style warm tungsten Christmas lights !
We had 2 sets of those noma twinkle lights and about 10 packs of the spare lamps, left them by accident in a box in the loft when we moved home. They go for stupid money now those spare lamps.
I've got the Noma set, which takes those twinkling bulbs, but the coloured ones. There's a garden centre, not far from where I live, which still had loads of various traditional Christmas bulbs left, which were stacked on a long shelf, by the tills. They were out all year. A few years ago, they were all removed. I was told they were put into storage, and would be out again for Christmas, but they didn't appear again. Anyway, I went back one day, with a list of the types of bulbs that I wanted. I ended up getting a full box, of around 17 packets of those Noma twinkling bulbs, plus some other types too. I didn't pay much for them. However, I don't think I should have been charged for them, as I was told by the owner, that all of the remaining bulbs, will be going in the skip, as they're defunct. I said that they're not defunct, as people still have sets for the bulbs to fit into, and I'm one of them. He looked at me like I was stupid.
Nice video again. This is the exact reason I don't much care for push in sets , waaaayyy to many base varieties, and I don't think they look as nice as screw in sets, but that's just my opinion, each to their own. Must say though, it's getting harder and certainly stupidly more expensive to find packs of spare screw ins. Nowadays, it's easier to pick up non working sets hoping for a good few spares. Might be an idea to do a video showing how to identify screw in bulbs that don't have any markings on them?
I’d like to clarify how the Noma twinkling sets work. As it says on the pack there are 20 ballast lamps and 20 twinkling. The ballast lamps are abs with a normal set, if the bulb fails there is a small coil of insulated wire inside. The failure means full mains voltage appears across the bulb and that is sufficient to break the insulation, shorting out the lamp so the set continues to operate. So far as with any other miniature bulb set. The twinkling bulbs are not the same as normal flashers. A flasher heats its internal strip unt.il it breaks the circuit, cools down, reconnects etc. in the noma twinklers, the heated strip SHORT CIRCUITS the bulb. In doing so it slightly increases the voltage over the other lamps which glow slightly brighter. Once all the twinklers are operating, the entire string of lights varies constantly in brightness as the number of bulbs shorting varies. The bulbs are made to withstand 8 volts. 20 ballast bulbs at 8 volts would all fail on 240 volts should all the twinklers short themselves at once (since they could only deal with 20 times 8, 160 volts.) This is only a theoretical situation. In practice the chance of 10 or more twinklers all shorted at once is never going to happen, but the fuse bulb which does not have the short circuit wire inside protects against a catastrophe. They are an ingenious set. I have a number of sets including some unused I think but the constant motion irritated me after a while so they didn’t get used all that much. I no longer do Xmas.. too many sad memories now of people and pets passed, but I like the lamps still!
The problem with spares is that when you do not replace the entire string, the little difference between manufacturers or.even between lots of the same manufacturer, will lead to voltage imbalances that will in time lead to the demise of the 'unlucky' bulbs.
Very handy information
Is there a supplier where you can purchase various standard voltage lamps that you can then re-shell into the existing fittings of the dead lamps? I think that’s going to have to be the future for keeping these old sets going. Great channel btw, nice to know I’m not the only one that loves these old style warm tungsten Christmas lights !
We had 2 sets of those noma twinkle lights and about 10 packs of the spare lamps, left them by accident in a box in the loft when we moved home. They go for stupid money now those spare lamps.
I've got the Noma set, which takes those twinkling bulbs, but the coloured ones. There's a garden centre, not far from where I live, which still had loads of various traditional Christmas bulbs left, which were stacked on a long shelf, by the tills. They were out all year. A few years ago, they were all removed. I was told they were put into storage, and would be out again for Christmas, but they didn't appear again. Anyway, I went back one day, with a list of the types of bulbs that I wanted. I ended up getting a full box, of around 17 packets of those Noma twinkling bulbs, plus some other types too. I didn't pay much for them. However, I don't think I should have been charged for them, as I was told by the owner, that all of the remaining bulbs, will be going in the skip, as they're defunct. I said that they're not defunct, as people still have sets for the bulbs to fit into, and I'm one of them. He looked at me like I was stupid.
Nice video again.
This is the exact reason I don't much care for push in sets , waaaayyy to many base varieties, and I don't think they look as nice as screw in sets, but that's just my opinion, each to their own.
Must say though, it's getting harder and certainly stupidly more expensive to find packs of spare screw ins. Nowadays, it's easier to pick up non working sets hoping for a good few spares.
Might be an idea to do a video showing how to identify screw in bulbs that don't have any markings on them?
I’d like to clarify how the Noma twinkling sets work. As it says on the pack there are 20 ballast lamps and 20 twinkling. The ballast lamps are abs with a normal set, if the bulb fails there is a small coil of insulated wire inside. The failure means full mains voltage appears across the bulb and that is sufficient to break the insulation, shorting out the lamp so the set continues to operate. So far as with any other miniature bulb set. The twinkling bulbs are not the same as normal flashers. A flasher heats its internal strip unt.il it breaks the circuit, cools down, reconnects etc. in the noma twinklers, the heated strip SHORT CIRCUITS the bulb. In doing so it slightly increases the voltage over the other lamps which glow slightly brighter. Once all the twinklers are operating, the entire string of lights varies constantly in brightness as the number of bulbs shorting varies. The bulbs are made to withstand 8 volts. 20 ballast bulbs at 8 volts would all fail on 240 volts should all the twinklers short themselves at once (since they could only deal with 20 times 8, 160 volts.) This is only a theoretical situation. In practice the chance of 10 or more twinklers all shorted at once is never going to happen, but the fuse bulb which does not have the short circuit wire inside protects against a catastrophe. They are an ingenious set. I have a number of sets including some unused I think but the constant motion irritated me after a while so they didn’t get used all that much. I no longer do Xmas.. too many sad memories now of people and pets passed, but I like the lamps still!
The problem with spares is that when you do not replace the entire string, the little difference between manufacturers or.even between lots of the same manufacturer, will lead to voltage imbalances that will in time lead to the demise of the 'unlucky' bulbs.