Gosh, I can’t imagine why it may not have been working when I simply unscrewed the incandescent bulb to put in an LED.

Now that’s some ancient tech! Varnished cloth insulators were phased out back in the 1960s a few years after this house was built.

Looking more closely at it in some proper light, I’m rather astonished that it was even capable of sustaining voltage sufficient for the 60w incandescent bulb that was in it.

Yeah, I know, it’s a rental. Don’t care. Going to fix it. It’s part of my pay-it-forward policy of leaving a place in a better condition than when I arrive — in this case, I’ll replace every bulb with far more efficient LEDs.

How many?

Well…

Upstairs

• 26 incandescent bulbs around 60w.
• A few first-gen CFLs. Heh, remember those things? When they were cold?! Outside?!?

Basement

• Nine ancient ballast-driven, 4-bulb, fluorescent fixtures (yep, 36 bulbs). A few of the fixtures have failing and failed ballasts.
• Another eight BR30 (60- to 120-watts) flood lights.

Outside

• Oh, we’re not done yet — nine incandescent BR30 and BR40 flood lights between 60 and 120-watts.
• The bulb that was in that fixture itself.
• And a few of those flood fixtures are broken (unusable).

Total wattage? Honestly I don’t know. Didn’t keep track of exactly what wattage each bulb was. But with more than a few lights on, I don’t even want to think about what the previous tenants’ electric bills would’ve been.