Speaking of Light and a chuckle.

[Craig Lebakken]

I was in the local autoparts shop the other night, buying a
taillight bulb for the 4K, (about the only thing I will buy
at the local auto parts shop), and noticed that
Sylvania/Osram doesn't rate their bulbs in watts anymore.
They are rated in volts and Cp. Cp? WTF? The light in
question is a bulb in the right rear, outer cluster (not the
ones in the trunk lid), and is the lower inner. The burnt
bulb - probably factory - is a 12V/10W Philips. So, I am
looking at ten different styles with the same bayonet size;
some big filaments, some small, some double, when I find a
bulb that exactly matches the bulb I want to replace. Made
in Italy. 4 Cp. Not 10W. I have assumed that Cp is
"candlepower", and shake my head as I walk to the counter.

Now for the chuckle.

Mr. Monkeylad is a bit sleepy eyed when I hand him the
product for the autoscan. I comment that the lights are four
candlepower and not rated in watts. I ask him: WTF is a
candlepower? (not quite in that verbage). The sleepy eyes
brighten immediately, look me straight in the eye and
respond, with total seriousness:

"That must be four candles together"

Cheek and diaphragm muscles twitching in nearly
uncontrollable laughter, I manage, with a straight face:

"Yeah, but how many candlepower per watt?"

The eyes glaze a bit and Mr. Monkeylad responds:

- In perfect Beavis -

"Uhhhh. Huh huh huh. I couldn't tell you that....."

Take another bonghit dude.

Chuckling a bit on my way out to the car, I start to think
to myself - hopefully on a higher level. Who gives a _ about
Cp? I want power draw, in watts, so I can make an
intelligent choice for my fragile Audi electrical system.
Then I think, isn't Halogen more efficient than
Incandescent? Isn't Xenon more efficient than Halogen? So
what good is a Cp rating in the first place? Xenons make who
knows how many more Cp per watt than Incandescent?

For the archives, since I am pretty sure that I have the
right bulb, though pretty much based on bulb shape and
filament size only: 10W = 4Cp.

Therefore: .4Cp = 1W for other, incandescent, 12V,
applications.

All my engineering books cannot make this correlation, and
understandably so.

Bye,

Craig Lebakken
1986 4KQ H4/H1, (225Cp/250Cp;250Cp) I think.