| Manufacturer: | Calex |
| Model: | Rustiek 40W |
| Application: | General Lighting - Decorative |
| Wattage: | 40W |
| Width (max): | 64mm |
| Length: | 136mm |
| Tube Length: | N/A |
| Bulb/Tube material: | Glass |
| Colour Temperature: | Approx 2500K |
| Peak output wavelength: | Broadband |
| Total light output: | 210Lm (5.25Lm/W) |
| Rated lifetime: | 1,000 hours. |
| Cap: | B22 |
| Operating voltage: | 240V |
| Operating current: | 167mA |
| Warmup/restrike time: | None (Well...less than a second anyway...) |
| Cost (original): | £12.00 (From John Lewis, March 2012) |
| Place of manufacture: | China |
| Date of manufacture: | Not known. Possible date code H1 shown on lamp cap. |
| Lamp Status: | Working, new in packaging. |
Given that incandescent lamps (some halogens excepted) have almost overnight become an endangered species thanks to the EU ban on lamps over 40W, many peoples table lamps and chandeliers have become very boring looking places in the last couple of years. These are applications where they're as much decorative as they are practical. Restaurants and the likes have struggled as a result as well, as it's a lot harder to create a warm, relaxed ambience at low lighting levels with fluorescents than it is with incandescent lamps.
This is a lamp intended for just that sort of application. To give a very warm, inviting light and to look pretty while doing it. Styled very much in the image of the drawn tungsten filament lamps which started to take over from carbon based lamps around 1910, it does that job very well.
It is in fact, technologically speaking just a very slightly refined version of those early drawn tungsten filament based lamps. The filament here is drawn tungsten (not carbon as some of the promotional literature I've seen states), and is not coiled in any way. Due to the length of the filament, there's no gas filling in the lamp, so efficiency levels are low - very low. The deliberately low filament temperature in conjunction with the vacuum incandescent technology here means that only a pitiful 5.25Lm/W is achieved - Drawn tungsten lamps from 1911 could manage 9.0Lm/W!
Let's not get bogged down in statistics here though. This is a decorative lamp, and it really does look the part thanks to the shape, filament type and even down to the imitation "pip" on the top of the bulb.
Just a shame that there wasn't a little more attention to detail in the actual manufacture. The stem in this lamp is quite notably off centre, and the filament supports where they are connected to it are really quite untidy. Neither of these things affect the actual operation of the lamp, but cosmetics do count for something in this category - especially when at £12 apiece, these aren't cheap.
So full marks for effort - but minus a couple for final execution due to the quality control issues.
Calex Rustiek 40W Decorative Lamp - General overview of lamp
Calex Rustiek 40W Decorative Lamp - Detail of lamp cap
Calex Rustiek 40W Decorative Lamp - Detail of lamp filament (1/2)
Calex Rustiek 40W Decorative Lamp - Detail of lamp filament (2/2)
Calex Rustiek 40W Decorative Lamp illuminating one side of my room from a distance of approximately two metres
Calex Rustiek 40W Decorative Lamp - Overview of lamp shown while alight
Calex Rustiek 40W Decorative Lamp - Overview of lamp packaging
Calex Rustiek 40W Decorative Lamp - Shown held in hand to show scale
Calex Rustiek 40W Decorative Lamp Output Spectra
Calex Rustiek 40W Decorative Lamp - Detail of text stamped into lamp base
Calex Rustiek 40W Decorative Lamp - Detail of top of lamp showing "dimple" emulating the look of the vacuum tip off that was present on very early lamps.
This lamp added to the Virtual Display Shelf on the 8th March 2012 at 23:38.
References: Lamp packaging and Distributors website.
Acknowledgements: None.
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