30,000 watt light bulb experiments

0:00 This video is sponsored by me.

0:02 Hey guys, it's Drake here.

0:04 So, the ban on incandescent light bulbs was just lifted in the United States.

0:09 So, I figured I'd take advantage of the opportunity and buy

0:12 the most powerful incandescent light bulb

0:14 to ever be made for commercial production.

0:16 So, this bad boy is rated for 24,000 watts.

0:19 And of course, I plan on pushing it even further than that.

0:24 Now, I have to say, I never would have expected to be

0:26 so excited to play with an incandescent light bulb of all things,

0:29 but at these powers, I think it's guaranteed to be a good time.

0:33 So, yeah, let's get started.

0:34 And here's the monster in all of its glory.

0:37 Gosh, it's hard to even get the whole thing in frame there.

0:41 But, as you can see, it is indeed a 24,000 watt light bulb.

0:47 Of course, the real highlight are these filaments there.

0:51 Look how thick they are.

0:53 That's insane.

0:54 And that's tungsten.

0:55 So that's that's like a sizable chunk of tungsten in there.

0:58 Just I've never seen anything like it.

1:00 I'm almost terrified to power it up.

1:02 Now I really need to give you a sense

1:05 of scale and just how thick that filament is.

1:08 So I've got a 100 watt bulb right here.

1:12 So if you take a look at this filament, you can barely see this.

1:16 And this is 100 watts.

1:17 So it's like that's a fairly powerful light bulb.

1:20 And it's just hair thin.

1:22 You can barely see it.

1:24 And just in case you couldn't see it earlier,

1:28 this is a 100 watts and this is 24,000.

1:31 So quite a uh a size difference.

1:34 These bulb pins fit into a G38 socket like I've mounted right here.

1:39 But there's one problem.

1:40 This bulb takes 100 amps.

1:41 And and this thing's only rated for 40.

1:44 But I looked all over the internet and I could not

1:46 find a socket that was actually rated for the full current.

1:49 So, I guess I'm just going to have to yolo it and uh hope it it doesn't explode.

1:56 All right, let's chuck her in there.

1:59 Oh jeez.

2:00 Is it even going to fit?

2:03 Are you serious?

2:04 Oh my gosh.

2:05 It like barely wants to go in.

2:09 I don't want to break this.

2:12 Oh yeah, it's There it goes.

2:15 Oh, it's really tight.

2:17 Wow.

2:17 Okay.

2:17 I guess you don't want any wiggle room

2:20 when you have all this current going through it.

2:23 Want to keep that contact resistance down.

2:27 But jeez, it's really really biting on that.

2:32 Yep.

2:33 Okay, there it is.

2:34 Wow.

2:35 Yep.

2:35 That's quite a socket there.

2:37 You know, when I impulse bought this silly thing,

2:41 I just kind of expected to slap 240 volts across it and call it

2:44 a day because how hard can it be to drive an incandescent light bulb, right?

2:49 Then I remembered that light bulbs do a funny thing where

2:52 their starting current is a lot higher than their operating current.

2:55 And that's just because as the uh as the filament gets hot,

2:58 its resistance grows and then it draws less current.

3:00 Now, for a reasonably sized light bulb, that's not that big of a deal.

3:04 But for a light bulb like this, it's basically a dead short.

3:08 In fact, it's uh its cold filament resistance is something

3:11 like just a little over a tenth of an ohm,

3:14 which means it's going to draw more than 2,000 amps on startup.

3:17 That's a half a megawatt.

3:19 I mean, my breakers can't handle that.

3:22 Uh they would explode.

3:24 So, that means I have to come up with some sort of like soft start circuit

3:28 to uh like slowly bring it up to temperature

3:30 just so I can turn this stupid thing on.

3:33 I'm going to start by ramping this thing up on my variac over here.

3:37 Now, this thing isn't nearly big enough to run it at full power,

3:40 but I I at least want to see how far I can take it.

3:44 So, it's a start.

3:45 All right, let's give her some juice there.

3:48 Oh, yeah.

3:49 I can hear that hum.

3:51 All right, let's slowly ramp it up here.

3:54 Oh, no.

3:55 Oh, no.

3:56 Look at this.

3:57 I'm barely turning it.

3:58 It's already pulling 50 amps.

4:01 It's not even glowing either.

4:03 Oh, they're just barely starting to glow.

4:06 And it's pulling.

4:07 Okay, now the current's dropping, but still 30 amps.

4:10 Barely any voltage on that.

4:12 And it's just barely glowing.

4:13 So, I guess we'll uh crank it a little bit higher.

4:17 Give her back to 50.

4:19 Oh my gosh.

4:21 I can already start feeling the heat there.

4:26 It's Oh my gosh.

4:29 Look at this.

4:30 It's my meter or my variac is not rated for this kind of current,

4:34 but it's I I'm barely driving this thing.

4:37 So, now I'm at 5,000 watts and it's uh and oh my gosh,

4:41 I feel so much heat from that.

4:44 Look at that.

4:45 It just it just pecked out.

4:48 This thing's going to melt.

4:51 Oh no.

4:52 Oh, it's making so much light.

4:54 Oh my gosh.

4:55 Oh, this thing is going to explode.

4:58 What is that?

4:59 about 6,500 watts.

5:00 It's so warm, too.

5:02 Oh my gosh.

5:03 This thing's gonna melt.

5:05 I I gotta kill it.

5:07 Wow.

5:08 So, now the power is off, and that's just the residual heat in the filament.

5:14 That is insane.

5:15 I'm clearly going to have to do something else

5:18 uh for driving this thing to full power, though.

5:20 But wow.

5:21 I threw together this little dimmer circuit here.

5:23 It's nothing fancy, just a uh little chopper circuit based on a couple SCRs.

5:28 Now, I I know this thing can handle the uh the bulb when it's at at full power.

5:33 It's just the startup where things could get a bit spicy.

5:37 So, uh I guess I'll just slap 240 volts across it and hope it works.

5:42 Oh, and I added a couple meters here.

5:44 This is just a thermometer to make sure the uh these heat

5:48 sinks don't get too hot because they're probably too small, honestly.

5:51 Then I also have uh this ammeter here to measure the current and it

5:55 just picks it up via this current transformer with this wire going through it.

5:59 Yes, it's a beautiful enclosure there, isn't it?

6:01 All right, moment of truth.

6:04 Oh, good.

6:05 At least it holds back the voltage.

6:08 Now, let's try ramping this thing up.

6:11 I know if I hit this too quickly, it's just going to explode.

6:14 So, I got to take it real slow.

6:16 Oh jeez, this is horrifying.

6:18 Just waiting till there's the smallest- oh.

6:21 Oh, there it goes.

6:23 Oh, I can hear it, too.

6:27 Give it a little bit more.

6:30 Oh, it's still not glowing yet.

6:34 That is just insane.

6:36 I've just I've never put this amount

6:39 of current through something without it glowing.

6:42 Okay, there it goes.

6:44 Just starting to turn red.

6:48 There's 40 amps.

6:50 So scary cranking this thing up.

6:54 Now we're at 50.

6:56 So this is about where I got with my uh with my variac.

7:01 Oh, it's getting bright.

7:02 I'm just waiting for this thing to violently explode.

7:06 I'm Oh my gosh, look how much light that is.

7:10 And there it is.

7:12 70 amps.

7:13 It's 70 amps.

7:14 Look how much light there is.

7:17 This is just ridiculous.

7:19 It's so hot all the way back here.

7:21 Even look at this.

7:22 But the power- This isn't even half power.

7:25 It's more than half current.

7:28 It's not half power.

7:30 Oh my gosh.

7:32 This is insane.

7:34 We're up to Oh my gosh.

7:38 It's It's so bright.

7:40 Wow.

7:41 Oh shoot.

7:42 What happened?

7:43 Did I kill it?

7:46 Oh, of course it's cuz I'm on a uh I tripped the breaker.

7:53 Ah, well, this is annoying.

7:54 This is getting more complicated than I wanted it to.

7:57 But I guess my next move is to uh is to wire something directly into the panel.

8:02 I think that sign means uh good times to be had in here.

8:08 Oh yeah.

8:09 Oh yeah.

8:10 This is going to be fun.

8:12 There it goes.

8:14 All right, I got that safely wired up there.

8:16 However, I'd like to make a quick

8:19 comment about these range outlets that I'm using.

8:21 Now, I can already foresee comments from electricians going,

8:25 "Oh, that's a 50 amp rated range cord.

8:27 You can't put 100 amps to that." Yeah, well, watch me.

8:31 So, let me clarify.

8:33 If you're the type of electrician that immediately recognizes

8:35 that I'm exceeding the ratings of this cord, good eye.

8:38 You are the type of person that I would want wiring my house.

8:42 Seriously.

8:42 However, if you think that some silly

8:45 electrical code supersedes the laws of physics, well, you're mistaken.

8:48 I can put a 100 amps through this cord.

8:51 I could put a thousand through it.

8:53 Although, of course, that would, you know, quickly melt it and catch it on fire.

8:56 But at 100 amps, I mean, yeah, it's going to get pretty toasty,

8:59 but it's not like I'm sticking this thing

9:02 behind a wall to run continuously and unsupervised.

9:04 No, this is just for some relatively short runs under my supervision.

9:09 I mean, what's the worst that could happen, it explodes?

9:12 Who cares?

9:13 So, yeah, you know, don't wire your house this way.

9:15 But I don't want to see your complaining

9:17 about this in the comment section, okay?

9:20 And on a similar note,

9:21 just because these uh these disconnect switches are rated for 30

9:25 amps does not mean it actually limits the current to that.

9:28 The amount of people that watched my macrowave video,

9:30 saw me boil a cup of water in 6 seconds,

9:33 then had the audacity to call the 20 kilowatt

9:36 number fake because of this switch right here was ridiculous.

9:39 I mean, yes, it's rated for 30 amps.

9:42 I simply put 80 amps through it.

9:45 I don't know why it's so hard

9:46 to understand that I'm simply abusing these ratings because

9:49 there is nothing physical that stops me

9:51 from putting that kind of current through this switch.

9:53 Of course, other than the risk of catastrophic failure,

9:56 which is a risk that I'm willing to take,

9:59 but I mean, I tend to build things in a hurry with stuff I already have on hand.

10:03 And that's why there's this all this uh, you know, underrated stuff in my lab.

10:07 But I should point out that there's always something up

10:10 the line that is rated to disconnect these kinds of currents.

10:13 So if something explodes or fails catastrophically,

10:15 it's no big deal for me to run up and kill a breaker.

10:19 But yeah, stop calling my stuff fake because of some stupid electrical codes.

10:23 Anyway, rant over.

10:25 Let's burn our retinas out.

10:27 Breaker on.

10:28 Nothing's exploded yet.

10:30 Good.

10:30 All righty.

10:31 Let's see if we can make it to 100 amps this time.

10:37 And I got my silly little control panel here.

10:39 Again, I got to be pretty slow with the uh initial startup

10:43 just because it's uh I got to be careful with my switch there.

10:49 Okay, this is where it gets fun, right?

10:52 So, I'm still back up at uh 50 amps.

10:55 Oh, this is this is going to this going to be crazy here.

11:00 Keep pushing it further.

11:02 Wow, so much light.

11:04 Look at that.

11:05 It's already illuminating everything.

11:07 We still have so much more to go.

11:11 There's 70.

11:12 There's 80.

11:13 Oh my gosh.

11:14 It's like It's like I lit a nuke in here.

11:17 It's hard to like set the exposure on something like this.

11:20 But wow, look at the shadows in that.

11:23 I can feel the heat so strongly back here, too.

11:27 All right.

11:27 Can we go to 100?

11:29 Oh my gosh.

11:30 It's There's so much light coming out of this.

11:33 Oh, we're so close.

11:35 Wow.

11:35 Oh my gosh.

11:36 It's so hot.

11:37 I'm gonna have to set my I'm going have to set

11:41 my uh ND filters just so you can see this.

11:45 There it is.

11:46 There's full power.

11:47 Wow.

11:47 Look.

11:48 Isn't that incredible?

11:49 Look how much light.

11:51 Look how much light that is way back there.

11:56 Oh my gosh.

11:57 There's a full 100 amps.

11:59 My goodness.

12:00 Oh, it's so bright.

12:01 It feels like I'm staring at the sun.

12:04 There's so much heat coming off of that.

12:08 Look at that.

12:09 It's incredible.

12:10 There's so much light.

12:12 And it's quiet now just because uh now

12:15 the uh now the circuit's not chopping anything.

12:17 So it it just passes the current straight through.

12:20 And now it's it's quiet.

12:21 But wow, that is that just wild.

12:23 I'm going to uh there's there's the full that's what it really looks like.

12:28 And I'm going to turn it off.

12:30 So there's no power going to it.

12:32 And that's just the residual heat.

12:34 Man, that is that is a lot of light.

12:37 Wow.

12:37 Now, don't get me wrong.

12:39 I could stare at this light bulb all day,

12:42 but at this point, I think it's worth trying some experiments with it.

12:45 So, the fact that this is an incandescent light bulb

12:47 means that it's not very efficient at making visible light.

12:50 However, it's really good at making infrared light.

12:53 In fact, most of the electrical power that goes

12:55 into this thing actually comes back out as invisible IR radiation.

12:59 So, it's probably really good at heating things up.

13:01 And gosh, if I'm lucky, it may even be able to light some things on fire,

13:05 which would really make it the ideal light bulb.

13:07 The envelope on this bulb here is not normal glass.

13:10 It's actually fused quartz.

13:11 And while this allows it to operate at super high temperatures,

13:15 it means that absolutely nothing can get on it when it's running.

13:17 Even something like a fingerprint can cause it to shatter.

13:20 So, this means if I want to do any stupid experiments with it,

13:23 I'm going to have to build an enclosure around it.

13:26 I came up with this beautiful fixture

13:27 here that should allow for some experimentation.

13:29 So, I have an aluminum reflector here.

13:31 I have this uh mesh on top and bottom to keep the bugs out,

13:35 as well as this pane of borosilicate glass

13:37 to uh to prevent stuff from splashing against the bulb.

13:40 And this will also have the function of blocking

13:42 most of the UV that the bulb makes.

13:45 So, yeah, let's uh let's do some experiments.

13:48 Now, unfortunately, I had to add yet another feature

13:51 to this driver here because these SCRs were getting too hot.

13:53 Now, I have this relay short them out after it's at full power.

13:57 Now, I really hope this is the final edition because

13:59 I am sick of adding things to this stupid driver.

14:02 When I powered up the fixture, it started smoking from somewhere.

14:05 I couldn't tell what was burning, but I figured it might be bugs.

14:09 So, I stuffed steel wool in the cracks

14:12 and added more copper mesh around the base.

14:14 However, this didn't stop the smoking.

14:16 In fact, it turned out that the steel wool

14:18 was actually burning in there and making it worse.

14:20 I realized that even with the covering,

14:22 the bugs that were landing on the outside were still

14:25 being cooked and seemed to be the source of the smoke.

14:28 I ended up sidelining this project for several months to work on other things.

14:32 All right, it's been something like 5

14:34 months since I've last powered up this bulb.

14:37 Uh the reason why is right there.

14:39 Those 400 car batteries have taken up my entire life.

14:42 But not to distract you, I have I have made more improvements to this fixture.

14:46 So the big one is I replaced the the steel wool with copper wool.

14:51 So hopefully that doesn't catch on fire.

14:53 Then also I realized that the rare earth magnets I had holding

14:56 this together were probably going to you know exceed their curie temperature.

15:00 So I replaced them with ferrite.

15:01 So yeah, hopefully hopefully the fixture doesn't burn this time.

15:05 Guess we're about to find out whether it was

15:09 really just bugs or something else in the fixture.

15:13 Anything smoking yet?

15:14 Oh no, there's smoke again.

15:16 What's going on?

15:18 No.

15:18 Maybe it'll burn out.

15:20 Maybe it's just remnant bugs, right?

15:23 There's a full power.

15:25 Okay.

15:25 What's going on here?

15:27 There's some smoke.

15:28 My gosh, it's so bright.

15:31 I can't see.

15:32 I don't know how much smoke I need to be worried about.

15:35 There's smoking more and more and more, isn't it?

15:38 Well, there's smoke.

15:39 So, I don't know how I want to proceed here.

15:43 So, I I want to rip off all

15:45 those bug covers cuz I think that's what's actually smoking.

15:47 So, I was going to fire up this metal halide bulb

15:50 to see if there's any bugs out cuz it's pretty cold.

15:52 I just wanted to make sure.

15:54 However, the dumb thing does not want to seem to turn on.

15:57 If I could find this plug.

15:59 So, it's plugged in and it will not light.

16:01 This is uh I'm going to try lighting it this way.

16:04 Yep.

16:05 Look at that.

16:06 Perfect.

16:06 Oh, I love that.

16:07 And yeah, as you can see from all the just disgusting coating

16:11 on that bulb that clearly does not mind having insects run into it.

16:16 But yeah, that is one one good way to light

16:20 a uh to light a stubborn light bulb there.

16:23 So yeah, now I'm going to see if any bugs come to this.

16:28 And if not, then I will feel safe pulling

16:30 off the cover of the light bulb over there.

16:32 Oh, that's a vibe, isn't it?

16:34 Oh, yeah.

16:35 I should point out that this is not a normal metal halide.

16:39 That's a thallium lamp.

16:40 That is why it is so green.

16:43 Yeah.

16:43 So far, so far it looks like there's not any bugs.

16:46 If they if they don't come to that lamp, then they're probably not out.

16:50 Yeah, there's nothing around the lamp.

16:53 Okay, I think I'm good.

16:56 Well, I don't know why copper would be smoking like

16:58 that unless it has like some sort of coating on it.

17:01 Either way, I'm going to rip off this uh this like

17:04 bug protector and see if this stupid lamp keeps smoking.

17:07 All right, now I'm going to try it without this cover.

17:11 If this doesn't work, I'm going to be very annoyed.

17:14 There's so many weird noises that come from every

17:17 part of this in my meter's making sounds.

17:20 The light bulbs making sounds.

17:21 Even like my light fixtures in my house make sound when this is running because

17:26 of the uh because of how awful that that circuit

17:30 is for chopping the uh the sine wave.

17:34 Okay, there's 80.

17:36 I don't see smoke yet.

17:39 No, there's smoke again.

17:41 Why is there smoke?

17:43 What is smoking?

17:45 Why What is smoking in there?

17:48 That is so stupid.

17:51 This is infuriating.

17:54 It's just billowing out smoke.

17:59 Stupid.

17:59 I'm realizing now that it might actually

18:02 just be the the galvanization on the steel.

18:06 Just the zinc plating that's that's burning off.

18:08 I didn't think it would get that hot, but that might be the culprit.

18:13 Might have to strip off all the zinc then.

18:17 Have I mentioned that I'm annoyed yet?

18:19 because I am annoyed yet.

18:21 So, I think zinc is the culprit here.

18:25 So, I'm going to give it a quick bath in hydrochloric acid.

18:32 M yummy.

18:32 So, funny story.

18:34 I remember a time when I was 14 going through the checkout

18:38 line at Walmart with airsoft BB's and a gallon of hydrochloric acid.

18:42 Well, I I put my stuff on the counter

18:45 and the cashier scans the airsoft BBs and she's like,

18:47 "Oh, well, you have to be 16 to buy these.

18:49 Do you have your ID with you?" I'm like, "No." So, she's like,

18:52 "Oh, well, I can't sell these to you." And then sets them aside.

18:55 But then she scans the acid, doesn't say anything,

18:58 and I pay and walk out the door with a gallon of hydrochloric acid.

19:02 You know, it's funny how how corporations have

19:05 to decide what is and isn't too dangerous for children.

19:08 I guess hydrochloric acid is just a-ok.

19:11 Okay.

19:11 So, I pulled this thing out of the acid bath and it immediately started rusting.

19:15 So, I'm going to say that's probably a good

19:17 sign that I got rid of all the zinc there.

19:19 I'm still going to torch it a little bit

19:21 just to be totally sure it's all gone, though.

19:24 Well, I really hope this time is the charm

19:27 cuz I'm sick of uh rebuilding this thing.

19:30 All righty.

19:31 Who's ready for another round of disappointment?

19:34 Let's light her up.

19:38 See what happens.

19:40 No smoke yet.

19:43 Okay.

19:44 Why is it smoking?

19:47 Why is it smoking?

19:50 What on earth is smoking?

19:53 Is what I just Is it the Is it this stupid reflector?

20:00 What is going on?

20:02 Just What is smoking on this piece of garbage?

20:05 I tore the aluminum reflector on there just

20:08 to uh get rid of any grease or whatever.

20:10 I I I did that to the whole fixture

20:12 actually before um you know a few iterations ago.

20:16 I just I just cannot figure this out.

20:19 Guess I could remove the reflector and see what happens.

20:23 It is the fixture.

20:25 Why is the fixture smoking?

20:28 There's probably still even after the acid bath

20:30 probably didn't get into those tiny little crevices.

20:34 Slowly but surely, it is winding down.

20:37 Yeah, I think that's good.

20:39 I see no more evidence of smoke.

20:42 I think whatever was burning in there got cooked out.

20:45 And I still think it actually was the uh the zinc.

20:49 Okay.

20:50 Okay.

20:50 So, I think that's the best I'm going to get.

20:56 Now, let's see if it quits smoking.

21:00 All right.

21:01 No smoke yet, and it is at full power.

21:07 there.

21:07 No, there's smoke again.

21:10 Now, what is possibly smoking?

21:13 So, the reflector smokes, too, then.

21:16 And it keeps getting worse.

21:19 No, this is so infuriating.

21:20 I ended up just letting it bake out for a while

21:24 and decided to go ahead with the burning experiments after the smoke diminished.

21:30 Okay, so it's so bright.

21:33 It's so hot, too.

21:35 Oh my gosh.

21:37 I'm going to need something better than these goggles.

21:42 But it's like staring at way more than the sun.

21:46 So maybe if I get off to the side, I do want to try Oh my gosh.

21:50 I do want to try a piece of paper.

21:53 Oh my goodness gracious.

21:54 I can't see anything.

21:57 Where is that?

21:58 Oh yeah, there it goes.

22:04 Oh jeez.

22:04 Yeah.

22:05 I don't know if you can see that, but it's definitely on fire.

22:11 Yeah.

22:11 Not not exactly a laser, but uh you know,

22:14 with a laser, the power is all concentrated.

22:17 Even even if the raw power isn't that high,

22:19 but with something like this, it just it's just raw power.

22:22 That that's all there is.

22:24 That's fun.

22:25 Yeah.

22:25 What else could I burn here?

22:27 You know, I think one of these uh one of these laser welding

22:32 helmets is my best bet to actually see what's going on up here.

22:35 Although, it is still absurdly bright.

22:38 But now I can at least see what I'm doing with this thing.

22:45 Yeah.

22:45 Oh, that's fun.

22:47 Beautiful fire.

22:49 Okay.

22:49 What What else can I light on fire here?

22:55 Or at least cook.

22:57 Um, oh yeah, a plastic bag looks like fun.

23:01 What will happen to this?

23:04 All right, I got a plastic bag here.

23:07 Get up to this portable.

23:09 Oh, it just shrinks.

23:11 I I wish you could see that on video.

23:16 Oh, it's close.

23:18 I mean, it's shrinking.

23:19 It's smoking, but it's not exactly It's not on fire yet.

23:23 It's probably going to melt before it catches on fire.

23:26 Yeah.

23:28 It just shrinks into nothing.

23:32 Maybe I can get like a side view.

23:37 Oh my gosh, it's so bright.

23:42 It's melting.

23:43 It's melting the aluminum.

23:46 What?

23:47 Shoot.

23:47 Look at this.

23:50 Ah.

23:50 No.

23:51 No.

23:52 I can't believe this.

23:54 I got to kill the power.

23:59 You've got to be kidding me.

24:03 No.

24:04 No.

24:04 Look at that.

24:06 That is bonkers.

24:09 Well, that is a slight issue, I would say.

24:15 I don't know what I'm going to do to fix this.

24:20 Maybe I'll space the bulb differently in there so the uh

24:23 this aluminum isn't so close to it on the back.

24:26 Look at that.

24:27 I just I can't believe that happened.

24:30 At least it didn't like drip all over everything.

24:34 That could have been bad.

24:36 All righty.

24:37 For the next iteration, I have scooted this whole fixture back.

24:40 That way, this uh the back of the new

24:43 reflector is a little bit further spaced from the filament,

24:47 and it's less than ideal, but maybe it'll buy me more time.

24:52 So, let's fire it back up.

24:55 Well, I guess while I let this fixture burn

24:57 in, I guess I can see if this thing can uh, you know, cook cardboard.

25:01 See what we can do here.

25:05 Oh, yeah.

25:06 It's getting toasty.

25:08 It just it just brute force.

25:12 Complete brute force here.

25:14 Yeah.

25:15 Just burns it on the face.

25:18 That's insane.

25:19 All right.

25:20 So, I'm going to see if I can get this to show up up on camera at all cuz yeah,

25:25 you can see it just instantly scorches it.

25:30 Obviously, the closer I get, the more uh toasty it gets.

25:39 Wow.

25:40 Yeah, there you go.

25:44 It's so cool how it can just light the face of it like that.

25:50 Whatever.

25:51 So, I wanted to mention something about the exposure here.

25:54 So, it's not just this little area that's being lit up.

25:59 Oh, no.

25:59 The light goes way back there.

26:02 It's lighting up the whole forest.

26:04 So, yeah, just incredible amount of light coming from this thing.

26:09 You know, there there really is no good way

26:12 to get this to show up well on camera.

26:14 But anyway, I'm still going to try these uh these plastic bags.

26:19 Oh, yeah.

26:20 Just instantly melts them.

26:24 It shrinks them.

26:27 Delicious molten plastic.

26:30 Oh, no.

26:31 Oh, that's lovely.

26:32 Here I've got a CD case that I've already

26:35 shot some holes in with a laser long ago.

26:40 See how it holds up to the uh to this thing.

26:46 Oh, it's smoking and warping.

26:49 Oh, wow.

26:50 It's already molten.

26:52 Folded in half.

26:53 Oh, it's it's getting all Yeah, there it goes.

26:57 I made all these like hairs of plastic.

27:01 I know it's basically impossible for anything to show up on camera,

27:06 but I'm still maybe Yeah.

27:07 So, that was newspaper and just instantly lit on fire,

27:11 lighting the whole It's lighting the whole yard on fire.

27:14 And then, of course, I got a uh I've got the pingpong ball here.

27:19 I don't know if it's actually going to hold up.

27:23 I mean, this one is white, so it's uh obviously not very absorptive.

27:29 Oh, it is getting melty.

27:31 It is getting melty at least.

27:33 Yes, it did.

27:34 It lit on fire.

27:36 No way.

27:37 I'm impressed by that one, I guess.

27:40 I mean, if it can if it can melt aluminum, then maybe I shouldn't be so shocked.

27:44 But wow, that's cool.

27:46 What else can I light on fire?

27:49 We got some delicious delicious plastic foam here.

27:52 Packing foam.

27:53 Even Even out here, it's already burning.

27:57 Shrinks into just this little thing.

28:00 Oh, that's hilarious.

28:01 Okay, so this is the thermometer that sits on the wall.

28:05 And you can see how it's all screwy.

28:08 It's like broken.

28:09 So, let's see if I can see how hot this light bulb is with this.

28:15 Can I get it in here?

28:17 Yeah, it's already at the edge.

28:20 Maybe I can get it to show.

28:25 Can you see it?

28:27 Oh, yep.

28:28 There it went.

28:29 Ha.

28:29 RIP.

28:30 So, yeah, it's clearly a bit toasty in there.

28:34 All right, let's see what it does to a candle here.

28:43 Yeah, it's certainly liquefying.

28:46 It It gets so slippery once it's molten like that.

28:49 You know, I'm realizing now that this thing

28:51 is basically the world's most powerful Easy Bake oven.

28:54 So, I'm kind of curious what happens if I try cooking food with it.

28:58 Okay, I think s'mores will be relatively easy to make.

29:02 So, uh I think this is going to be the first thing I try to cook.

29:05 I'm going to start with this chocolate

29:06 here because I think it'll be the easiest.

29:09 So, I'm sure it won't take long.

29:12 Yeah, it's already it's already melting.

29:15 M delicious.

29:16 It's hard to hold on because it's getting so liquidy.

29:21 Oh, jeez.

29:22 Oh, okay.

29:22 So, the the chocolate is clearly is clearly ready.

29:26 So, let's move this up here.

29:29 Now, we're going to get the uh the marshmallow.

29:33 Marshmallow might might be a bit harder because it's, you know, it's white.

29:37 Oh, it's so it's so hard to hold this.

29:39 It's getting so hot.

29:41 Jeez.

29:41 Maybe if I can get it from the side, I won't light my hand on fire.

29:51 Yeah.

29:51 Okay.

29:52 Yeah.

29:53 Oh, yeah.

29:54 There's the smoke.

29:55 I think I'll call that ready.

29:58 Oh yeah, that is very melted.

30:01 Okay, now the cheese is going to be hard

30:06 cuz it's it takes a lot more to melt cheese.

30:10 Yeah, it's sizzling.

30:11 Okay, there you go.

30:14 Yeah, starting to boil actually.

30:17 Okay, I think I can finally assemble.

30:21 I don't know if you can see how melted everything is here.

30:25 I can't even assemble it cuz it's like it's falling apart.

30:29 This is ridiculous.

30:30 I think I overdid the power a bit, but let's give this a try.

30:38 M.

30:38 That's really good.

30:39 Yeah, it kind of lacks the uh it lacks the smoky flavor of a campfire,

30:45 but it's um it's still nice like homogeneously heated compared to a laser.

30:50 It's better than a laser.

30:52 You know, it feels like standing next to like 20 campfires.

30:56 So, I don't know if you can see this, but I have a bag of popcorn here.

31:01 I think that this is going to be a tough game.

31:04 I think it's going to be, you know,

31:06 trying to find the middle ground between actually

31:07 popping it and of course lighting it on fire.

31:10 So, I guess I'll uh try finding that middle ground then.

31:14 Oh, it's smoking a lot and all the oil is like wanting to drip down, I think.

31:21 Ah, this is just Oh, it caught on fire.

31:31 Well, maybe maybe I need to try that again.

31:35 Okay, so I I think I I think I'm have to be more gentle this time around.

31:43 Okay, don't light on fire.

31:46 Do not light on fire.

31:49 Ah, lit on fire again.

31:52 You've got to be kidding me.

31:55 Yeah, I don't think this one's going to work.

32:00 Okay.

32:01 Well, what else can I cook?

32:03 Okay, I got a hot dog this time.

32:05 I mean, it's pretty hard to screw up a hot dog, right?

32:10 So, let's uh let's give this thing a cooking.

32:14 Gosh, even having my even having my hand outside

32:17 of like the beam just the fixture is so hot.

32:22 It's uh it's hard to hold my hand there.

32:27 Okay, I imagine that's enough, right?

32:31 Let's give this a try.

32:34 Oo, it's still toasty though.

32:38 M.

32:39 Let's see here.

32:41 Oh, yeah.

32:42 Yummy.

32:42 M.

32:43 That is a good corpse tube.

32:45 Oh, yeah.

32:46 That that chocolate there is still very uh it's very molten.

32:51 Just sitting here in the periphery.

32:54 M.

32:55 Oh, you know, there's one more thing I wanted to try cooking.

32:59 That's bacon here.

33:00 I don't want to get too carried away.

33:02 So, just going to cook this single mobius strip of bacon here.

33:06 Oh, it's going to get grease all over that window.

33:09 Gross.

33:10 Oh, yummy.

33:11 I think I think that is done.

33:14 Look at that.

33:16 Just wanted to showcase that beauty.

33:19 Beautifully done.

33:22 It's absolute perfection.

33:25 Chef's kiss.

33:28 Alrighty.

33:29 Moment of truth.

33:32 M.

33:33 It's pretty uh It's pretty good.

33:36 It's awfully uh it's awfully chocolaty just because that chocolate just

33:40 got on that on that uh those tongs and got on everything.

33:44 But yummy.

33:45 That's pretty good.

33:46 That's pretty good.

33:47 I um I think I'm satisfied now with uh with what this thing can cook cuz yeah,

33:52 I'm going to get burned doing this much more.

33:55 For the final experiment, I want to push the lamp all the way to 30,000 watts.

34:00 I'll do this by simply cranking up the voltage.

34:03 Of course, this isn't going to be good for the lamp,

34:06 but will it immediately explode?

34:08 Well, I hope not.

34:09 It's no surprise that running a light bulb

34:12 past its rated voltage will decrease its lifespan.

34:14 But how bad is it exactly?

34:15 You may have heard that a candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

34:20 But when it comes to light bulbs, it's far worse than this.

34:23 There's a derating equation that predicts how long

34:26 a light bulb will last when it's overdriven.

34:28 And it's interesting because it

34:29 contains this astonishing 13th power relationship,

34:31 which is by far the highest I've seen for anything related to engineering.

34:35 Now, this means that just slight variations in voltage

34:38 and thus power will cause massive changes in the expected lifetime.

34:42 My giant light bulb is only rated

34:44 for 150 hours of lifetime in its rated voltage.

34:47 Now, when driven at 30 kW, that should drop to about 22 hours.

34:52 Not great, not terrible.

34:53 Now, on the flip side, underdriving a light bulb can make it last far longer.

34:59 So, for example, this light bulb right here

35:01 is rated for a thousand hours of lifetime.

35:03 Now, if I decrease the voltage by 5%, it'll last twice as long.

35:07 By 10%, four times as long.

35:09 Now, if I drive it at half voltage, it'll last a thousand years.

35:14 Well, at least based on tungsten evaporation.

35:16 You may have seen stories about a light

35:19 bulb that's been running for over a century.

35:21 Often in the context that they don't make things like they used to.

35:24 While I still find something like this cool, it's no secret how this happened.

35:28 The bulb is barely turned on!

35:30 All right, it's finally time to drive

35:32 the ever living daylights out of the light bulb.

35:34 Now, I could use a transformer to raise the voltage,

35:36 but the problem with that is that one that's actually rated

35:39 for the power would have to be bigger than this thing.

35:42 So, instead, I'm going to use this relatively little auto transformer.

35:46 The cool thing about auto transformers is that it's

35:49 only the difference in voltage that's being transformed.

35:51 The main's voltage passes straight through.

35:53 And that's why I can use something the size

35:56 of this to do the job of something bigger than this.

35:59 Well, sort of.

36:00 This thing is really only about half the size it should be,

36:03 but I'm sure it'll be fine.

36:05 All right, I've got this thing wired up here.

36:07 I've got to say it is pretty funny

36:09 to see such thin wire connected to much thicker wire,

36:12 but that's the magic of using this thing as an auto transformer.

36:15 But even so, this is still a bit undersized.

36:18 But that is fine as long as I keep the run times fairly short.

36:23 All righty.

36:23 I've got the bulb out in the yard there,

36:26 and it is time to push this thing to 30,000 watts.

36:30 So, let's start the whole process here.

36:34 Just barely glowing at 50 amps.

36:37 Never never gets old.

36:40 We are at Here we are at 60.

36:45 Almost there.

36:46 Oh, it still has a while to go and it's already at 100.

36:55 Oh my gosh.

36:57 It's going off the scale.

37:00 Oh, it's off the scale.

37:03 Oh, I'm still going.

37:06 Still going.

37:07 Okay.

37:08 Wow.

37:09 Okay, there is the full 30,000 watts.

37:12 Wow, that is very, very bright.

37:14 I can feel some of the warmth all the way back here.

37:19 Jeez, look at that.

37:22 Off the scale.

37:24 It's probably pulling something like 110 115 amps, I would guess.

37:29 I could just I could just soak it in all day.

37:33 This is so nice.

37:34 I mean, it's barely above freezing out right now, but in front of this lamp,

37:38 it's like it's like a warm summer's day right in the sun.

37:41 Ah, this is great.

37:43 Can it burn without the uh without the reflector on front?

37:46 I don't want to get crap all over.

37:48 Yes, I'll take that as a yes.

37:49 I don't want to get garbage all over the the bare bulb, but very much so.

37:55 It's just it's really hard to capture just how much light

37:59 is coming off of this thing because it just everything is illuminated.

38:04 the trees just way way out in the distance

38:07 are just it's crazy the amount of illumination.

38:11 I can go way back there and it's still so bright.

38:15 So, I do want to see one thing here.

38:17 So, I'm going to go inside my shop.

38:20 I just want to see what it looks like coming through the windows.

38:24 Yeah.

38:25 So, look at this.

38:26 So, there's no lights on in the shop.

38:28 And just that just that little thing that comes

38:31 through the window there is enough to illuminate everything.

38:35 I can see everything just fine.

38:37 Just from the little amount that's coming through the window.

38:42 Wow.

38:43 Look at that.

38:44 That is ridiculous.

38:46 I can see everything so well.

38:49 I wanted to get this aerial view here.

38:53 You can see all that light making it way back there.

38:58 I just That's incredible.

39:00 I have to get further back.

39:03 I have to get further back.

39:05 But man, I just That is It is This is so cool.

39:09 I'm I would have never imagined that I would

39:12 have so much fun with an incandescent light bulb.

39:15 It's just an incandescent light bulb.

39:17 It just happens to be really powerful.

39:20 Yeah, that should be about should be about a million lumens from that bulb.

39:29 Even back here, this is just like scattered light.

39:35 It's just scattered light.

39:37 It's still illuminating all of it.

39:40 Looks so nice with the fall colors, man.

39:44 You know, you cannot cannot beat tungsten for the color rendering.

39:48 This is about It is an ideal white light source because it's purely thermal.

39:53 Of course, it's not efficient that way, but it's just unbeatable.

39:58 A lovely still water there.

40:00 You don't get many nights like this in fall.

40:05 You know, I'm trying to get to the distance where

40:08 I could I no longer be able to read a book, but still have a ways to go.

40:14 It is there's still plenty of light back here.

40:19 I can easily read a book in this kind of lighting.

40:22 There's still so much more to go.

40:25 You know what?

40:26 I keep walking back and the light still keeps on spreading through.

40:30 Finally getting to the point where it is getting dim,

40:34 but of course that's just because the trees are simply blocking it.

40:43 Looks like there were some deer staring at the light bulb.

40:49 There's still stray light making its way back here.

40:58 I can even see the deer.

41:02 Yeah, this is where uh so I think this is 225 yards

41:06 cuz that's where the uh I remember doing the laser turret video here.

41:10 Look at that.

41:11 There is still like I could read.

41:13 I could read in this light.

41:16 I could read in this light.

41:19 Absolutely.

41:19 Just incredible that for a 360 degree illumination,

41:24 it comes all the way back here through the trees and everything.

41:31 Like look at that.

41:34 I could easily read in that light.

41:38 Easily.

41:39 Wow.

41:40 Talk about a still night.

41:44 Still just a few crickets going even though it's just barely above freezing.

41:51 Wonder what the critters in the trees think of this.

41:53 Like my squirrel friend.

41:56 I wonder if they think it's it's daylight.

42:02 Looks like the coyotes like this.

42:09 I wanted to make some comments before I end this video.

42:12 And the first in particular is regarding the incandescent light bulb ban.

42:15 So, when I started making this video at the beginning of the year,

42:19 there was this executive order that claimed it

42:20 was going to rescind some energy saving regulations,

42:23 including those around light bulbs.

42:25 Well, it turns out that this was pretty much legally meaningless,

42:29 and incandescent light bulbs are still banned.

42:31 Now, I will say that I do think that a ban on incandescent light bulbs is dumb.

42:36 Uh, it's not that I think you should

42:37 all replace the bulbs in your house with them,

42:39 but there are still specific use cases for them and and I

42:42 at least want to have the option to buy them.

42:44 Now, the real kicker is that big light bulbs

42:46 like this were never even banned in the first place.

42:49 They were actually exempt because uh they have these specific

42:51 use cases where there's no direct replacement that's energy saving.

42:54 So, there's actually a couple industries

42:56 that like using these giant light bulbs.

42:58 The film industry is one.

43:00 Uh, I know they like them because they're a, you know,

43:03 they're a compact and powerful light source,

43:05 but specifically they like them because the color rendering is just unbeatable.

43:08 I know there's I know there's LEDs these days that come really really close,

43:12 but apparently there are still purists out there that want that, you know,

43:16 the best you can get, which is tungsten.

43:17 Then I guess the other uh big application is just for, you know, research stuff.

43:21 Uh, these function as really good solar simulators,

43:24 which you know, shouldn't be a surprise.

43:26 So yeah, they they get used in research projects as well.

43:29 The final point I want to bring up is the real inspiration for this video,

43:33 and that's Photonicinduction's video on a 20,000 watt light bulb.

43:36 Now, if you don't know who Photonicinduction is,

43:39 he's an electrical legend on YouTube.

43:40 And he's actually my biggest inspiration as a content creator.

43:43 So, when I saw that I could buy a bigger

43:46 light bulb than what he showed in his video, I knew I had to do it,

43:49 just because it is not very often that I can beat Photonicinduction at anything.

43:54 Now, unfortunately, he hasn't posted any videos in years,

43:56 but he did tease that he's going to be coming back soon.

44:00 So, uh, yeah, you should definitely check

44:01 out his channel if you haven't already.

44:03 He he's made some just really good videos.

44:05 One final thing, in my last video, I made rubies with my giant handheld laser

44:11 and offered some for sale as my first merch offering.

44:14 Since then, I've done lots of experimenting growing rubies and other sapphires.

44:17 With the rubies, I found that I

44:20 get better color by lowering the dopant concentration,

44:22 which makes them pinker while still giving the same bright fluorescence.

44:26 These rubies look super nice when set into silver jewelry,

44:29 which I now offer as merch on top of the bare rubies.

44:33 If you're interested in buying my laser rubies and laser ruby jewelry,

44:36 check out the link below.

44:38 You can find the other kind of laser rubies there, too.

44:41 That is rubies grown for use in lasers,

44:44 as well as many other cool scientific gemstones.

44:47 Well, that's about all I have for you today.

44:50 So, until the next time, stay safe and happy illuminating.