Bill Jeffrey said:
Good answer, but that wasn't his question. If I read the OP correctly,
he has a bulb in his hand (not in a string) and doesn't know which
string it goes into. In other words, he doesn't know how many volts it
takes to light this particular bulb.
Bill
Bill, you're right, and thanks: I have a bulb in my hand, and want to know
the proper voltage it requires.
I have measured resistance, and get a reading of 1 (full resistance) for a
burnt bulb.
Working bulbs have varying resistance, depending on voltage, I guess. My
meter is set at 200 on the OHM scale (selections from 2000K to 200).
Results:
1.7 or 1.6 for bulb from the 2.5v set
3.5 for unknown volt bulb
2.2 " " " "
and
20.2 for a motorized ornament of unmarked voltage which plugs into a socket
of the 2.5v set.
This last may be either bad or good for the other bulbs; if the motor
draws more or less voltage. My guess is it draws less voltage, thus is bad
for the other bulbs.
The other info is interesting, too, i.e. Ray's idea. And I now understand
why not replacing burnt bulbs is hard on the working bulbs - they receive
more voltage, burn brighter, and thus burn out faster... if I infer
correctly.
Thank you all. This group is great, and has also helped me before.
Dugie
There are "shunts" in the bulbs that act like shorts to pass on the voltage
if a filament burns out. The shunts are flaky and that is why you are
getting different Ohm readings with a meter. Bulbs are cheap and there are
only a few voltages available. If you want to go to the trouble you can
wire the strings up to a dimmer switch and bring the intensity up gradually
until its acceptable. And yes... in theory less working bulbs means a
higher voltage to all remaining bulbs, but in a huge string like you have it
would be negligible and spreadout between them all. You only have two days
left until Santa arrives...