Ladies and gentlemen, today I thought we could all take a moment to appreciate one of the most underrated household items: lamps.

I’m not out to convince anyone, but let me ask you – how great are lamps!?

Steve Carrell sure hit the nail on the head when he delivered that infamous one liner, and I couldn’t agree more.

I love lamp.

But here’s the thing about lamps: lamps, as it turns out, can be dangerous.

You’re kidding, lamps?

I know what a bummer, it was a bit of a wakeup call to me as well to find out that lamps aren’t as perfect as they seem.

Sure we’ve come a long way from the oil burning, genie dispensing kind. And if I’m honest, I never really thought it was worth the risk to rub hot metal with my bare hands (I’m sensible like that).

Nevertheless, certain lamp attachments are still a bit risky.

Let’s talk about conversion

Want to bring that art deco sconce into the 21^st century? Well, the good news is you can buy something for that. It’s called a lamp holder adaptor. They serve a very useful purpose, but also fall under Energy Safety regulations.

Here’s the guff:

Old school bayonet to the more modern Edison (screw) light fitting adaptors can legally be sold. However, they will need to have a recognised approval and an SDoC (see more about these on our previous post on SDoCs).

The reverse, Edison to bayonet adaptors, cannot be legally sold because they do not comply with the relevant Energy Safety standard in New Zealand.

Yeah, I know, sorry lamp lovers. Bayonets are on the way out.

Think of all those ‘how many ____ does it take to screw in a lightbulb?’ jokes you couldn’t make if we went back to those dark days though. Tragic.

You’ve lost me, where does the Genie come in?

If you’re selling an adaptor that converts bayonet fittings to Edison (screw) fittings, and have the recognised approval and SDoC to back it up – you’re good to go.

If you don’t meet that criteria, best not to try and sell them on the site or in New Zealand for that matter.

Edison to Bayonet adaptors cannot be sold on Trade Me