Phil, sorry I'm getting back at this but I think you're seriously 
overdriving these NE-2 bulbs.
Even the high brightness versions need a 33K resistor.
Regular NE-2 bulbs (which you most likely use as well) require around 150K
I'm running standard brightness bulbs in my wall switches on 230V and I'm 
using 330K
Always go as high as you can with resistor value.
I've been running standard bulbs on 220K and they became luke warm to 
touch. This reduces the lifetime of the bulb and can cause blackening of 
the glass.

On Saturday, January 16, 2021 at 1:52:34 AM UTC+1 philthepill wrote:

> I make my own lighted switches...
>
> I connect NE-2 lamps with a 20 K-ohm resistor at both ends of about 8 
> inches wire, drill a small hole in the switch face plate and push the end 
> of the lamp thru just a little  and hot melt glue it in place. If the face 
> plate is white, you can just glue the lamp to the backside of the faceplate 
> and it will shine thru. I wire the other ends of the resistors to the hot 
> and neutral terminals that go to the light.  When the light is off, 
> the neon lamp lights, and when the light is on, the neon is off.  You can 
> find all the light switches in my house at night just by looking for the 
> neon glow.  They have never needed replacing.  If you want to be super 
> safe, you can use 4 x K-ohm resistors,  two just next to the neon body and 
> the other two at the other end of the wires. I use heat shrink over the 
> resistor connections in both cases.   Very cheap and effective but not UL 
> or CSA approved.
>
> Pharma Phil 
>
> ---------- Original Message ---------- 
> From: Nick Andrews <nickja...@gmail.com> 
> Date: January 15, 2021 at 12:20 PM 
>
> Sweet! I've been thinking of looking for a lighted switch in the 'on' 
> position for the attic lights we installed to maybe remind us to turn them 
> off. Been up there a bit lately, running cable. More cameras, power, commo. 
> New NVR has 10 cameras, I think have added about a dozen new duplex 
> outlets, and so far 17 runs of cat5 through the house. More to come. 
>
> Yes, some thermostats had mercury bulbs in them, the bigger ones having 
> bigger bulbs. I grab those wherever I can find them, getting scarce now. 
> There were also contactors with a fairly significant amount in them, but 
> tricky to open for recovery. OLD ignitrons I think had a large amount in 
> them. Sure mercury can be toxic, but it kills me to see the ridiculously 
> idiotic overreactions to things like broken fluorescent bulbs in schools or 
> places. I know a guy who built a box device to try recovering the mercury 
> from old bulbs. It wasn't worth the hassle. A 4' flo bulb has what, about 
> 1/20 of a drop of mercury in it? I've broken hundreds of them, and 8' ones 
> too in my time. In high school we used them for lightsabers at the 
> university dump. 
>
> I use mercury in my carburetor sync gauge for my bike. I know they make 
> some now with a little tungsten rod in them which are safer, and maybe I'll 
> buy one some day. But for now, I'll hoard my little stash... 
>
> On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 9:15 AM martin martin < mcve...@gmail.com> wrote: 
>
> Greetings all, 
>
> These are no longer available in the US as of 40+ years ago. I found one 
> in a box and had to put it back in to service! 
> They were sold as "silent switches". Small tube of mercury to make the 
> contact and the toggle switch has a large NE-2 for a nice looking night 
> light. 
>
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