Light Bulbs, Light Bulbs, Light Bulbs

I once worked with a chap who was a churchwarden, many years ago.  I remember asking him about the job and what it involved.  He said it was mostly changing light bulbs.  I thought he was joking, but looking around the church I’ve found how big a job that is.  There are a lot of bulbs in the church, hall and cottage, and if we don’t keep on top of them we can end up with a big job of replacing them all at the same time.

A lot of the issues with the church bulbs are that they are high up in ceiling and you need a long ladder to reach them.  There are two blown bulbs behind the chancel arch, for example, and I’m going to need a very long ladder to get up to them.

In my first survey round the buildings I have discovered:

• Blown fluorescent tube in the vestry and two other missing bulbs
• Blown fluorescent tube in the hall store room and one missing tube
• Five blown spotlights at the end of the hall
• Blown bulb in the cottage courtesy light
• Blown starter in church porch light
• Blown starters in the hall kitchen, one in the store room and one in the cottage upstairs
• Blown light in the ladies loo.  Also found we had a very bright 20 W bulb in one of the cubicles and a rather dimmer 11 W lamp in the main wash/baby changing area.
• Big powerful 100 W spotlight in the smallest room in the cottage.

I think if we’ve got bulb holders, they should have the correct bulbs in them.  Having dead bulbs and empty bulb sockets seems very untidy to me, and if we’re letting the hall to outsiders it doesn’t create a great impression.  So I’ve replaced every dead bulb I’ve come across.  Of course light bulbs use electricity when we turn them on, and electricity costs money.  So we must always remember to use lighting only when we need it.  On bright sunny mornings, do we need to have all the lights in the church switched on?  Using the big floodlights costs the same as a large electric fire, while the wall washers add another 50% to this cost.  But on dark evenings, the lighting in the hall can be barely adequate and the spots at the north end are really useful.  At least if the bulbs are all working, we can make choices about how we use them.  So please let me know if you notice any other missing or dead bulbs around the place and I’ll do my best to replace them as quickly as possible.

In service of our Lord, Jesus Christ,

David (assistant to the Churchwarden)