Lava lamps take an absurdley long time to heat up. Since they run on a 40-watt bulb, which is perfect to sustain them, they take about 2 hours to get running. The lava lamp heater would come built-in to new lamps, or as a screw-in retrofit. It would consist of a small heating coil which starts when the lamp is turned on. After the wax is quickly melted, a bi-metallic strip turns off the element and lets the light bulb do all the work. If the bulb was ever to fail, the coil would take over so that the lamp would still work in a lit room. The retrofit models would come with a small, parabolic-reflector style bulb, since there would not be enough room under the globe for the real bulb.

I would appreciate it if the administrators would consider adding a "Lava Lamp" category.
-- fogfreak, Jun 04 2004

//a small heating coil// or a halogen stove burner.
-- FarmerJohn, Jun 04 2004


How about a dual filament lamp (like those three way bulbs you can buy)? Start out at 150 watts then let it drop to whatever.
-- phoenix, Jun 04 2004


But lava lamps are all about relaxation and slow evolution - an instant-on option is incongruously hyper.
-- DrCurry, Jun 04 2004


Having the heater activated by temperature rather than on a timer would be better because it would be cheaper, and would allow the heater to work whenever it was needed.
-- fogfreak, Jun 05 2004



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