I know its nothing to do with Computers but I figure someone here should be able to answer this question. I have a set of lights which uses screw-in bulb rated at 3.5V 0.5W. They are long since discontinued. The nearest match I can find are ones rated 3.6V 0.47W. I presume the bulbs will be OK for voltage as they will be getting 0.1V less juice than rated, but slightly over-Watted. Any ideas?
they should be fine. they may get a little hot though. but with such a small over wattage it shouldnt make that much of a difference. just replace the bulbs, and plug them and leave them within reach for a while so you can check on how hot they get
They will not be "over-watted" the rating on a bulb shows how much power they will USE at the specified voltage, if you supply the bulb with 3.6V it will draw 0.131A (total 0.47W) so supplying it with 3.5V it will draw 0.126A and only use 0.44W. They should be fine but perhaps a bit dimmer.
A problem could arise if different wattages are mixed in the series string. The higher wattage bulbs will have a lower resistance and drop less volts, throwing more of the supply across the low wattage bulbs in the string. However, the difference here is so slight I'd say they were equivalents.
