UK lights! will they be compatible in Switzerland ?

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
41
It's a neat marketing trick. You put one inefficient, outdated lightbulb inside another inefficient, outdated lightbulb and, HEY PRESTO, you have a brand new type of mega-super-eco-friendly lightbulb which costs twice as much and uses 2% less power. Brilliant!

42
UK switched to 240/50 in 1946, so it seems that Wooli is a bit older than he pretends.

Tom

43
I guarantee any halogen bulb will go orange if dimmed i.e. run on a lower voltage, even at 230v the colour temp will be between 2900k - 3200k which is very yellow relative to daylight 5600k or more. The colour accuracy of Tungsten Halogen is better than everything else other than real sunlight, often used in studios for high end advertising film work.

44
If they don't go orange, then they're not halogen, period. A halogen bulb is an improved incandescent bulb, and still relies on a glowing wire to provide the light. If you dim it, that filament glows orange instead of white.

I'm only aware of two types of lighting that do not exhibit a color shift when dimmed: fluorescent and LED. And in both of those, it takes special fixtures to provide the dimmability, as regular ones start doing weird things if you run them on a dimmer.

That's incorrect. Halogen bulbs give a significant increase in efficiency (the halogen gas lets the filament be run at a hotter temperature without burning out, increasing the luminous flux for a given wattage). Nowhere near the massively higher efficiency of CCFL or LED, but a nice boost all the same. Nobody is claiming halogen to be the most efficient kind, but as fatmanfilms said, they provide the best color quality.

45
Yes, I thought it might be.

46
Here lies the confusion. Shaver sockets in hotel bathrooms in the UK were 110 volts due to fears about mixing electricity and water. There's a bit about it here .

I very much doubt the rest of the power in the building was only 110 volts.

47

Oh, I see. But how should we Continentals and Colonials know about such crazy notions of the rulers of the Empire

We were not told about, but had to find it out ourselves. Most took it with the appropriate humours, others were really angry

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I suppose that Britain was/is a bit more old-fashioned than it pretends/pretended most of the folks in our class at the LTC School of English fought with the 110 Volts (in autumn of 1972, as Greater London apparently had not yet heard of the Switch you mention). and had to see that a SIXPENCE had a value of 2,5 pence, that a ONE-SHILLING piece had a value of 5 pence and a TWO SHILLING piece a value of 10 pence

48
1. I find it amusing that a Swissy complains about not being told something. My experience of switzerland is that is one of the least transparent countries in europe. For example Switzerland is the only country in Europe not to display its speed limits at the borders let alone warn you that you must have your headlights on at all times! Surely the rule for any tourist is to check before you go....

2. I have checked with my father and his father, between us we have lived in London continuously for over 80 years and the only 110v that has existed in that time were the shaver sockets in the bathroom that went through a brief phase of being 110v only. Now they are either 240v or dual voltage. At NO time has the UK ever had 110v as any sort of standard except for that. All apliances have been 240v for as long as I can remember - well before your time in London. My house is around the corner from there and the wiring is over 40yrs old and all 240v. as you can see from http://tinyurl.com/p8fc3cr all uk shaver sockets are now either 240v or dual voltage.

3. Not sure what your point about the currency was - UK was going through a period of decimilasiation and for a brief period we had two currency's - big deal.

for your edification

2 farthings = 1 halfpenny

2 halfpence = 1 penny (1d)

3 pence = 1 thruppence (3d)

6 pence = 1 sixpence (a 'tanner') (6d)

12 pence = 1 shilling (a bob) (1s)

2 shillings = 1 florin ( a 'two bob bit') (2s)

2 shillings and 6 pence = 1 half crown (2s 6d)

5 shillings = 1 Crown (5s)

20 shillings = 1 pound

Conversion to the decimal currency was on the basis of 1 shilling (12 old pence) = 5 new pence - hardly complicated.

4. As for Britain being old fashioned - well you obviously dont' know it very well...... In the early 70's London was the most progressive city in the world and it is no slouch now.. Not sure what London you visited but it was very different to mine. I had such good time in London in the 70s that I cant remember most of it!!

for your further edification:-

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains...ity_by_country

Further research shows that 240v was decided on in the Electricity (Supply) Act 1926

Please just accept that the UK is and has nearly always been 240v and stop telling others that is 110v

49

1) the rule about the headlights is strange, as based only on a ruling of the Fêderal Council but not on a real law

1-b) you cannot show the Speed Limits at the borders, as they depend on the CANTON. While in most of German speaking Switzerland the speed limit in motorway tunnels is 80 kms it in the Ticino is 100 kms. The Ticinesi may have changed this or not fact is that Speed Limits are set by the Cantons and in many places the municipalities are free to differ

2) fully accepted, except that we all were not told --- and over 40 years old means that it was science fiction by 1972

3) truth is that I was very happy that the UK had become decimal right in time just for such a lousy mathematician as me -- so that this was not a complaint but a statement of Facts

4) you are wrong totally

- I know Britain very well

- I love and admire London

- The Tube of London to some extent much later was copied for the S-Bahn in Zürich and London-Heathrow was copied at Zürich Airport many many times

- NY in 1976 was (together with Chicago and Los Angeles) more modern than Zürich, Geneva, Milano, Firenze, Pisa, Paris, London so that this point goes to the USA

50
As regards border speed limit signs and daylight headlight use, it is down to the driver to acquaint themselves with the road rules of the country in which they are driving or are entering - and not rely on being spoon fed information by a nanny state.

The lazy and uninformed, pay the price.

.... and Wolli, for someone who always likes finding references for authenticating your comments, again you are not accurate about autobahn tunnel speed limits - they're all 100 around here, and the majority I've driven through in other parts of the country are also 100.

51
But it took awhile before all houses got indoor flushing toilets in my neck of the woods. Gardy-loo!

Cheers,

Nick

52
There are general limits (120/80/50) that apply nationally and could easily be posted (whether they should or not is another question). Anything that doesn't follow this (tunnels, local decisions, etc.) is separately signposted anyway.

53
Umm, yes they do, at least at all of the border crossings I've used.

Tom

54
Individual decision per tunnel as far as I can tell. Drive along Walensee towards Zürich and the first ones are all 100, the later ones (all older and more twisty) are usually 80 depending on time of day and traffic. City tunnels tend to be 80.

55
Yep ... no solid blanket rule, but the individual tunnel and conditions taken into account.

Most (if not all) have electronic, changeable max. speed signs for variable limits; as and when a change is required.

56
I moved from the UK years ago, there is no need to change voltage. If you take apart the plugs from the English lamps and replace them with swiss plugs, they work fine.

57
Well, if you drive you should be able to read, at least!

Crazy

58
This is exactly what the car-park attendant at Schloss Neuschwanstein said to me a few years back. Having failed to make head or tail of the absurdly complicated notice with all the different rates, I asked politely how much I had to pay, and he came back with the insulting retort "Verstehe. Kann fahren aber nicht lesen". Needless to say, I jumped out of the car, hoisted the squirming little Bavarian runt bodily out of his miserable car-park attendant's hut and kneecapped him with a 45 Magnum*.

*Note: some of this remains a little hazy in my memory and may not be entirely accurate.

59
Well, I am not surprised that your only reaction ability was to act violently about your indeed wrong attitude. Very childish and proves you indubitably guilty.

60
Now I've remembered what really happened: I just smiled feebly and asked the question again.