Another reason to hate CFLs ...

[Arfa Daily]

As if any more reasons were needed on top of their horrible startup
characteristics, their ugliness, their sick coloured light, and their
inability to last for a fraction of the claimed lifetime :-(

Like most of us, I suspect, I have hundreds of component drawers, which over
the years have become mixed up and confused, so in the circumstances of work
being very quiet at the moment, I decided to have a major tidy up and clear
out of redundant components. As a first move, I decided to rationalise the
resistors, and re-store them by individual value, rather than in groups of
values in the same drawer.

Now the other day, the bulb in my Anglepoise bench light failed, and as it
was the last 60 watt pearl one I had - nowhere stocking such an animal any
more due to EU ecobollox intervention - I put in a CFL that had come free
in a cornflake packet or some such nonsense. Once it has warmed up in the
morning - at least one coffee drinking time needed for this - it seemed to
work reasonably well. Until, that is, I started trying to identify the
resistors in my old drawers to move them into the individual value drawers
in the new location.

The spectrum from this lamp is so poor and discontinuous, that it is almost
impossible to resolve red from brown from orange, or violet from blue or
grey. Absolutely bloody useless. If I can't find any more 60 watt pearl
bulbs on the 'net, then I'm going to modify the lampholder to take a low
voltage halogen downlighter bulb, and hook it to a 12v transformer.

Arfa

 

[Phil Allison]

"Arfa Daily is a Bloody Whinger "

The spectrum from this lamp is so poor and discontinuous, that it is
almost impossible to resolve red from brown from orange, or violet from
blue or grey. Absolutely bloody useless.

** FFS - get a CFL that is rated for "Daylight White" colour balance.

My bench ( planetary arm) lamp uses a 22 watt " Daylight 6400K " spiral
CFL.

The light quality and quantity are both excellent.



..... Phil

 

[David Nebenzahl]

On 10/23/2010 6:28 PM Arfa Daily spake thus:

The spectrum from this lamp is so poor and discontinuous, that it is almost
impossible to resolve red from brown from orange, or violet from blue or
grey. Absolutely bloody useless. If I can't find any more 60 watt pearl
bulbs on the 'net, then I'm going to modify the lampholder to take a low
voltage halogen downlighter bulb, and hook it to a 12v transformer.

Hate to say it, Arfa, but you sound like a Croat ranting about how much
he hates automobiles, having driven nothing but Yugos all his life.

CFLs used to be like that, sure. The ones I use (here in the Untied
Snakes) are much better in all the parameters you mentioned: instant on,
no appreciable warm-up time, pleasing color spectrum, long life.

(Well, their packages still leave something to be desired in some
applications, but other than that they're good.)


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)

 

[D Yuniskis]

Hi David,

David Nebenzahl wrote:

On 10/23/2010 6:28 PM Arfa Daily spake thus:

The spectrum from this lamp is so poor and discontinuous, that it is
almost impossible to resolve red from brown from orange, or violet
from blue or grey. Absolutely bloody useless. If I can't find any more
60 watt pearl bulbs on the 'net, then I'm going to modify the
lampholder to take a low voltage halogen downlighter bulb, and hook it
to a 12v transformer.

Hate to say it, Arfa, but you sound like a Croat ranting about how much
he hates automobiles, having driven nothing but Yugos all his life.

CFLs used to be like that, sure. The ones I use (here in the Untied
Snakes) are much better in all the parameters you mentioned: instant on,
no appreciable warm-up time, pleasing color spectrum, long life.

Sadly, our experience (also US) has not been that satisfying.
Warmups of 15-30 seconds and I don't think any have lasted
more than 2 years. We have been replacing them with commercial
grade incandescents as they blow out (and donating the "free
replacement" bulbs to a local charity).

We've tried three different brands and have been disgusted
with all of them. (neighbors seem to share our opinion)

And the "dimmable" lamps are absolutely worthless.

(Well, their packages still leave something to be desired in some
applications, but other than that they're good.)

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sun, 24 Oct 2010 02:28:14 +0100, "Arfa Daily"
<arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Now the other day, the bulb in my Anglepoise bench light failed, and as it
was the last 60 watt pearl one I had - nowhere stocking such an animal any
more due to EU ecobollox intervention

One of these?
<http://www.shopadilly.co.uk/Auctions/vintage+anglepoise+lamp>

Ummm.... there should be a sticker on the Angelpoise desk lamp
indicating that due to the miserable ventilation design, the maximum
incandescent light bulb size is 60 watts. Anything bigger will blow
up rather rapidly due to overheating, as I found out in my previous
lamp. My current lamp is a Ledu, which specifies 75 watts max, mostly
because it has much larger vent holes and side ventilation slots.

The spectrum from this lamp is so poor and discontinuous, that it is almost
impossible to resolve red from brown from orange, or violet from blue or
grey.

You're using junk CFL bulbs. The ones I buy come on instantly. I do
have one in the kitchen that I'm too lazy to replace that takes a few
minutes to warm up. The others are almost instant on. CFL bulbs are
available in various color temperatures.

If you have a glass prism or diffraction grating, you can test your
bulbs for color spectra. Incandescent shows a continuous spectra,
while CFL shows a series of discontinuous color blobs. If the color
of your resistor band is missing from the spectra, you will have
problems even if all the other colors are present. See spectrum photo
on the right of:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp#Spectrum_of_light>
Also, look for CRI on the package. The closer to 100, the better:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index>

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

Arfa Daily wrote:

As if any more reasons were needed on top of their horrible startup
characteristics, their ugliness, their sick coloured light, and their
inability to last for a fraction of the claimed lifetime :-(

Actually I live CFLs. They provide a cheap source of light where I need light
but don't care how bad it looks. For example outisde lighting which is mostly
there so someone sees a light on and prefers to walk somewhere else, if even
just because it messes with their night vision.

I like them for places that I have to have a light on such as my windowless
bathroom. It's cheaper to leave one on 24/7 than have it on a timer.
Especially if I have to get up to use the toilet at 3am when the timer would
have the light off.

Over the years since I first got them in the late 1990's they have gotten
more efficient and finally someone wised up and is making them "warm",
which is close to the color that I can actually see.

The latest ones are brighter per watt, about 30%. I could see that about
a month ago when I replaced a bunch of them. I replace the one in the
bathroom when it goes out (and keep a spare as it usually happens late
at night), the others about once a year, just because.

Now the other day, the bulb in my Anglepoise bench light failed, and as it
was the last 60 watt pearl one I had - nowhere stocking such an animal any
more due to EU ecobollox intervention - I put in a CFL that had come free
in a cornflake packet or some such nonsense. Once it has warmed up in the
morning - at least one coffee drinking time needed for this - it seemed to
work reasonably well. Until, that is, I started trying to identify the
resistors in my old drawers to move them into the individual value drawers
in the new location.

We still have plenty of incadescent bulbs for sale here, and they are cheap.
I expect we are the dumping ground for bulbs made in eastern Europe but
can't be sold there. I've bought plenty of them to stock up.

We use them for reading lamps so there are 5 of them still in use in
our house.

I also have a good supply of 12v halogen bulbs, but to be honest, I'm not
sure where the lamp that the fit is.

Although they are long gone on the commercial market, they are still needed
for photgraphic enlargers. 3200k color temperature (about what you are used
to) and pearl or opal finish (very smooth even distribution of light).

Since they were often hung base up printing on the top would become part of
the image, so they had the wattage etc printed on the side, like a vacuum
tube (or valve as you would say).

You can find them if you search the web for suppliers of photgraphic darkroom
equipment, which has become a thriving niche market.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
To help restaurants, as part of the "stimulus package", everyone must order
dessert. As part of the socialized health plan, you are forbidden to eat it.

 

[N_Cook]

Arfa Daily <arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
newsYLwo.42936$vi1.18039@newsfe07.ams2...

As if any more reasons were needed on top of their horrible startup
characteristics, their ugliness, their sick coloured light, and their
inability to last for a fraction of the claimed lifetime :-(

Like most of us, I suspect, I have hundreds of component drawers, which
over
the years have become mixed up and confused, so in the circumstances of
work
being very quiet at the moment, I decided to have a major tidy up and
clear
out of redundant components. As a first move, I decided to rationalise the
resistors, and re-store them by individual value, rather than in groups of
values in the same drawer.

Now the other day, the bulb in my Anglepoise bench light failed, and as it
was the last 60 watt pearl one I had - nowhere stocking such an animal any
more due to EU ecobollox intervention - I put in a CFL that had come free
in a cornflake packet or some such nonsense. Once it has warmed up in the
morning - at least one coffee drinking time needed for this - it seemed to
work reasonably well. Until, that is, I started trying to identify the
resistors in my old drawers to move them into the individual value drawers
in the new location.

The spectrum from this lamp is so poor and discontinuous, that it is
almost
impossible to resolve red from brown from orange, or violet from blue or
grey. Absolutely bloody useless. If I can't find any more 60 watt pearl
bulbs on the 'net, then I'm going to modify the lampholder to take a low
voltage halogen downlighter bulb, and hook it to a 12v transformer.

Arfa

You can get your own back when you scrap them
one GE 11TBXT 3/827 10Y, 240V, 105mA CFL gave these "useful" bits
10R fusible R
2 x BU102 ?? high V, TO92
2.8uF, 400V, 105 deg F with nice long leads
30 V diac BLDB3 / DB3
high temp textile sleeving
4mH inductor
ferrite ring
2x 0.5R

 

[David Nebenzahl]

On 10/24/2010 1:34 AM Geoffrey S. Mendelson spake thus:

N_Cook wrote:

You can get your own back when you scrap them one GE 11TBXT 3/827
10Y, 240V, 105mA CFL gave these "useful" bits 10R fusible R 2 x
BU102 ?? high V, TO92 2.8uF, 400V, 105 deg F with nice long leads
30 V diac BLDB3 / DB3 high temp textile sleeving 4mH inductor
ferrite ring 2x 0.5R

How do you scrap them? The ones I have (and had in the past) were all
encased in some sort of ceramic, and to me they can only be taken
apart with a hammer.

Plastic, not ceramic. Still requires a few love-taps from a hammer, but
the circuit board can be retrieved undamaged.


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)

 

[N_Cook]

David Nebenzahl <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4cc3f0d0$0$2453$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

On 10/24/2010 1:34 AM Geoffrey S. Mendelson spake thus:

N_Cook wrote:

You can get your own back when you scrap them one GE 11TBXT 3/827
10Y, 240V, 105mA CFL gave these "useful" bits 10R fusible R 2 x
BU102 ?? high V, TO92 2.8uF, 400V, 105 deg F with nice long leads
30 V diac BLDB3 / DB3 high temp textile sleeving 4mH inductor
ferrite ring 2x 0.5R

How do you scrap them? The ones I have (and had in the past) were all
encased in some sort of ceramic, and to me they can only be taken
apart with a hammer.

Plastic, not ceramic. Still requires a few love-taps from a hammer, but
the circuit board can be retrieved undamaged.


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)

The white cone part is one-time fitted via pawls to the main part. Dremmell
grind a small hole into the cone at the break, where in case of both GE or
Philips logo is , seems to coincide with a pawl. Then lever off with
screwdriver. Cut the wires to the outside connector or desolder I suppose.
These days fibre reinforced plastic or mineralised plastic, used to be
ceramic in the original ones, Googling for BU102 + TO92 gets nowhere, I
assume as diac in there then triacs

 

[N_Cook]

Inside Philips Genie 8W CFL
10R, 1W
2 x Si 13001 triac?
105 deg C electros 1.8uF 400V and 2x 22uF lower V
1cm cube choke
ferrite ring
4.7mH choke
probably diac as well as "diodes" not checked

 

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

N_Cook wrote:

You can get your own back when you scrap them
one GE 11TBXT 3/827 10Y, 240V, 105mA CFL gave these "useful" bits
10R fusible R
2 x BU102 ?? high V, TO92
2.8uF, 400V, 105 deg F with nice long leads
30 V diac BLDB3 / DB3
high temp textile sleeving
4mH inductor
ferrite ring
2x 0.5R

How do you scrap them? The ones I have (and had in the past) were all encased
in some sort of ceramic, and to me they can only be taken apart with a hammer.

Thanks,

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
To help restaurants, as part of the "stimulus package", everyone must order
dessert. As part of the socialized health plan, you are forbidden to eat it.

 

[William Sommerwerck]

As if any more reasons were needed on top of their horrible startup
characteristics, their ugliness, their sick coloured light, and their
inability to last for a fraction of the claimed lifetime. :-(

Not so. At least not so with the lamps I use, CFLs from Home Despot.

They come on instantly (and reach full brightness in about 30s); their odd
appearance is usually covered by a shade or fixture; their color balance is
good enough for color photography (and under a glass fixture is
indistinguishable from tungsten); and their-less-than-claimed lifespan is
still pretty long (about 2K hours for these lamps), especially considering
they use about 1/4 the energy of a comparable-output tungsten lamp.

Fluorescent lamps have always suffered from weak red output and a
discontinuous spectrum. The use of CFLs in "non-industrial" environments
(kitchens, shops, businesses, offices) has forced manufacturers to "do
something" about these problems.

I had tried CFLs (Philips) when they first came out, because the electric
company subsidized them. They were bulky, dim when they came on (the Home
Despots aren't), and took "forever" to reach full brightness. And they
didn't last very long.

Several years ago Home Despot handed out free CFLs. I tried one and was
sold. I no longer use tungsten lighting. (If I needed a high-intensity desk
lamp, though, I would use tungsten.) As I write this, I'm sitting in my den
of iniquity, illuminated by a 24W Home Despot CFL. It's in a beautiful IKEA
fixture (no longer made, of course), and -- other than the fact you don't
feel a blast of infrared when you stand near it -- I defy you to tell it's
tungsten without looking at the bulb.

I use them "nekkid" in the bathroom, and though /slightly/ cool, the color
is anything but "sick". I'd call it a brilliant cool white. It in no way
resembles conventional fluorescents.

As for your problems with metamerism... I don't know whether the Home Despot
CFLs would solve the problem. However, it seems unlikely that /some/ GB
retailer isn't importing the same bulbs.

PS: I stuck one of Home Despot's free lamps in the fixture outside my condo.
It has lasted at least twice as long as the "long-life" incandescents the
condo association uses.

 

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

William Sommerwerck wrote:

As for your problems with metamerism... I don't know whether the Home Despot
CFLs would solve the problem. However, it seems unlikely that /some/ GB
retailer isn't importing the same bulbs.

Nope. The ones sold here (and I assume in the UK) are Hyundai (Korea),
Osram (eastern Europe), and a bunch of Chinese brands that sound like
famous Japanese ones but are not.

And they are ceramic, not plastic. :-(

I do occasionaly see Philps ones (at twice the price or more than the
others) and I have lots of GE incandescent bulbs which are made in
eastern Europe.

Geoff.
--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
To help restaurants, as part of the "stimulus package", everyone must order
dessert. As part of the socialized health plan, you are forbidden to eat it.

 

[Arfa Daily]

"David Nebenzahl" <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4cc390a0$0$2453$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

On 10/23/2010 6:28 PM Arfa Daily spake thus:

The spectrum from this lamp is so poor and discontinuous, that it is
almost impossible to resolve red from brown from orange, or violet from
blue or grey. Absolutely bloody useless. If I can't find any more 60 watt
pearl bulbs on the 'net, then I'm going to modify the lampholder to take
a low voltage halogen downlighter bulb, and hook it to a 12v transformer.

Hate to say it, Arfa, but you sound like a Croat ranting about how much he
hates automobiles, having driven nothing but Yugos all his life.

CFLs used to be like that, sure. The ones I use (here in the Untied
Snakes) are much better in all the parameters you mentioned: instant on,
no appreciable warm-up time, pleasing color spectrum, long life.

(Well, their packages still leave something to be desired in some
applications, but other than that they're good.)


--

Over the years since this technology was vaunted as the 'replacement' for
incandescent light, I have bought many examples from different
manufacturers. Whilst there has been some improvement in their performance
in that time, they remain, IMHO, a 'substitute' technology, rather than a
'replacement' one. They do not start up in the few mS that it takes an
incandescent to come on, no matter how good and up to date they are in that
respect. Neither do they reach full output for some considerable time after
they are powered. Most seem to be rated to produce 80% of their maximum
light output after 15 seconds. The remaining 20% takes a lot longer than
that. Both shortcomings are exacerbated by low ambient temperature. The
power ratings and light output are typically specced for an ambient
temperature of 25 deg C. Whilst some parts of the world may achieve this
most of the time, we don't here in the UK, and UK homes are certainly not
heated to that level from autumn through spring. Apart from that, they don't
sit properly in many decorative light fittings, and change the colour
aesthetics of some lampshades - notably for instance, in a rather nice
Tiffany style table lamp that I have. When I tried one in that, the
beautiful ruby red panels changed to a muddy colour, and the whole shade
took on a muted look, with much of the colour vibrancy that is a trademark
of this type of shade, gone. I went back to an incandescent in it. I was
able to use a clear one, as the bulb is not visible.

As another example of dubious output spectrum and CRI, I recently bought an
expensive example to go in a new light fitting in my hallway, which I had
just decorated. It was sold as a 'warm white' for household interior
lighting uses, and with a claimed equivalent light output of a 100 watt
incandescent. I chose a type that had a pearl 'globe' around the CFL spiral,
as the lampshade it was going in, was formed from glass crystal beads,
making the bulb completely visible, and part of the overall visual design.
An 'open' spiral or loop CFL design would have looked dreadful.

However, when it was fitted, the light from it was barely adequate, despite
the fact that previously, the hallway had been lit perfectly well with a 60
watt pearl incandescent bulb, and was now decorated in lighter colours than
it was before. Further, the colour spectrum was so poor that the background
of the wallpaper - actually a 'calico' colour - appeared to be a 'sick' pale
green, completely different in shade to the calico emulsion paint used
elsewhere in the hall, and which is indistinguishable from the wallpaper
background under natural daylight, or incandescent light.

My daughter, who is an artist and understands a lot about colour, saw the
new decoration for the first time after it had been completed and this new
bulb fitted, at night, and she was horrified at the effect, asking how on
earth we could have picked such horrible and mismatched colours. She knows
nothing of the technicalities and shortcomings of CFLs, and was just
reacting to something she was seeing from the artistic perspective.

My wife and I were so disappointed with her comments, that I immediately
removed the dreadful thing, and replaced it with a 60 watt pearl bulb that I
had rescued from my mother's stash after she died recently. Unfortunately,
it was the last one she, or I, had.

Once I had done this, my daughter couldn't believe the difference she was
seeing. To her, it had been 'just a light bulb'.

So, it's not just me. I think that many people don't like them - or the many
other eco, production and disposal implications (but that's another whole
story) - but are just going along with the whole thing because they are
being left with no other choice. They have their uses for sure. In areas
that have to be continuously lit for instance, or perhaps where aesthetics
don't matter. But as a replacement for incandescent light in all
circumstances ? No sir. Not yet. Not by a long long way ... And if that
makes me a Luddite and pommy whinger (just for you Philip) then yes, guilty
as charged ...

Arfa

 

[William Sommerwerck]

Over the years since this technology was vaunted as the
'replacement' for incandescent light, I have bought many
examples from different manufacturers.

You've obviously had bad luck. Or there aren't any good ones in your neck of
the woods.

They do not start up in the few ms that it takes an
incandescent to come on...

True. They come on instantly. You can see the difference -- there's a
visible lag with incandescents.

Neither do they reach full output for some considerable time
after they're turned on.

Mine take about 30s. And they're acceptably from the moment they're turned .
(The older Philips were really dim at turn on.)


It appears that your government is aggressively forcing a conversion to CFLs
and other low-energy lighting. Forced conversion tends to short-circuit the
normal market forces that encourage companies to produce products people
really like. Your manufacturers have no real motivation to produce CFLs with
pleasing color balance.

 

[Arfa Daily]

"Meat Plow" <mhywatt@yahoo.com> wrote in message
newsan.2010.10.24.15.10.48@lmao.lol.lol...

On Sun, 24 Oct 2010 02:28:14 +0100, Arfa Daily wrote:

As if any more reasons were needed on top of their horrible startup
characteristics, their ugliness, their sick coloured light, and their
inability to last for a fraction of the claimed lifetime :-(

Like most of us, I suspect, I have hundreds of component drawers, which
over the years have become mixed up and confused, so in the
circumstances of work being very quiet at the moment, I decided to have
a major tidy up and clear out of redundant components. As a first move,
I decided to rationalise the resistors, and re-store them by individual
value, rather than in groups of values in the same drawer.

Now the other day, the bulb in my Anglepoise bench light failed, and as
it was the last 60 watt pearl one I had - nowhere stocking such an
animal any more due to EU ecobollox intervention - I put in a CFL that
had come free in a cornflake packet or some such nonsense. Once it has
warmed up in the morning - at least one coffee drinking time needed for
this - it seemed to work reasonably well. Until, that is, I started
trying to identify the resistors in my old drawers to move them into the
individual value drawers in the new location.

The spectrum from this lamp is so poor and discontinuous, that it is
almost impossible to resolve red from brown from orange, or violet from
blue or grey. Absolutely bloody useless. If I can't find any more 60
watt pearl bulbs on the 'net, then I'm going to modify the lampholder to
take a low voltage halogen downlighter bulb, and hook it to a 12v
transformer.

Arfa

I like the 6500k CFLs for security lighting and my bench light. I'm very
surprised at the longevity of the outdoor 23 watters. They have been in
use dusk to dawn in all kinds of weather, all mounted inverted and in
some sort of shroud one actually totally enclosed in a globe. Only one
has failed after two years and I expected it to fail, the globe enclosed
CFL. None of these 4 outdoor lamps are rated for inverted use either. I
did some reading on inverting a CFL and the base temperature increases
dramatically when the lamp is inverted. So I would expect cheap
electrolytics to dry up in no time.

But this totally underlines my point about them being a 'substitute' rather
than 'replacement' technology. Many many household fittings are either
enclosed, semi-enclosed, or use a bulb that hangs down. In fact I would have
to say that fittings that have the bulb base facing up, other than perhaps
in table lamps, are few and far between, and fittings that do employ such a
scheme, and are then able to take CFLs, are even rarer. My son has a
three-branch 'chandelier' fitting in his hallway. He has fitted CFLs to
this, and because of the larger bases that these have to accommodate the
ballast electronics, they stick out of the tops of the glass shades, and
look ridiculous.

Arfa

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sat, 23 Oct 2010 22:08:20 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
wrote:

On Sun, 24 Oct 2010 02:28:14 +0100, "Arfa Daily"
arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

Now the other day, the bulb in my Anglepoise bench light failed, and as it
was the last 60 watt pearl one I had - nowhere stocking such an animal any
more due to EU ecobollox intervention

More...

"Emission spectra of some compact fluorescent lamps"
<http://web.ncf.ca/jim/misc/cfl/>

You can check the spectra of some CFL lamps at:
<http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Compact%20Fluorescent.htm>

"The Double Amici Prism Hand-Held Spectroscope."
Emission spectra of various lamps are furthur down the page.
<http://ioannis.virtualcomposer2000.com/spectroscope/amici.html>
Incidentally, you might find it amusing to see what CCFL backlit white
looks like on a laptop LCD display [1.3.7], and a Sony Trinitron
[1.11.3]. Also, the authors comments on "Full-Spectrum Lamps" near
the bottom of the page.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sun, 24 Oct 2010 09:50:24 +0100, "N_Cook" <diverse@tcp.co.uk>
wrote:

These days fibre reinforced plastic or mineralised plastic, used to be
ceramic in the original ones,

Reinforced Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) or Polyethylene
Terephthalate (PET) plastic resin with about 30% glass fiber mixed in
to minimally meet UL-94 V-0 flame retartent specs.

MSDS for CFL from Home Despot:
<http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/fd/fd8f96e1-4ff3-4a86-9070-e8583d3e636e.pdf>

Googling for BU102 + TO92 gets nowhere, I
assume as diac in there then triacs

What's inside and how it works:
"Self Oscillating 25W CFL Lamp Circuit"
<http://www.nxp.com/documents/application_note/AN00048.pdf>

Fiat Lux
(let there be light).

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Meat Plow]

On Sun, 24 Oct 2010 02:28:14 +0100, Arfa Daily wrote:

As if any more reasons were needed on top of their horrible startup
characteristics, their ugliness, their sick coloured light, and their
inability to last for a fraction of the claimed lifetime :-(

Like most of us, I suspect, I have hundreds of component drawers, which
over the years have become mixed up and confused, so in the
circumstances of work being very quiet at the moment, I decided to have
a major tidy up and clear out of redundant components. As a first move,
I decided to rationalise the resistors, and re-store them by individual
value, rather than in groups of values in the same drawer.

Now the other day, the bulb in my Anglepoise bench light failed, and as
it was the last 60 watt pearl one I had - nowhere stocking such an
animal any more due to EU ecobollox intervention - I put in a CFL that
had come free in a cornflake packet or some such nonsense. Once it has
warmed up in the morning - at least one coffee drinking time needed for
this - it seemed to work reasonably well. Until, that is, I started
trying to identify the resistors in my old drawers to move them into the
individual value drawers in the new location.

The spectrum from this lamp is so poor and discontinuous, that it is
almost impossible to resolve red from brown from orange, or violet from
blue or grey. Absolutely bloody useless. If I can't find any more 60
watt pearl bulbs on the 'net, then I'm going to modify the lampholder to
take a low voltage halogen downlighter bulb, and hook it to a 12v
transformer.

Arfa

I like the 6500k CFLs for security lighting and my bench light. I'm very
surprised at the longevity of the outdoor 23 watters. They have been in
use dusk to dawn in all kinds of weather, all mounted inverted and in
some sort of shroud one actually totally enclosed in a globe. Only one
has failed after two years and I expected it to fail, the globe enclosed
CFL. None of these 4 outdoor lamps are rated for inverted use either. I
did some reading on inverting a CFL and the base temperature increases
dramatically when the lamp is inverted. So I would expect cheap
electrolytics to dry up in no time.



--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sun, 24 Oct 2010 16:57:42 +0100, "Arfa Daily"
<arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

But this totally underlines my point about them being a 'substitute' rather
than 'replacement' technology. Many many household fittings are either
enclosed, semi-enclosed, or use a bulb that hangs down. In fact I would have
to say that fittings that have the bulb base facing up, other than perhaps
in table lamps, are few and far between, and fittings that do employ such a
scheme, and are then able to take CFLs, are even rarer. My son has a
three-branch 'chandelier' fitting in his hallway. He has fitted CFLs to
this, and because of the larger bases that these have to accommodate the
ballast electronics, they stick out of the tops of the glass shades, and
look ridiculous.

Agreed on all points. The lifetime of the CFL bulb seems to be
dramatically less if the bulb is enclosed in any manner (covered lamp
or reflector). See upper bar graph for 1,000 hr test at:
<http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/resources/newsroom/pdf/2007/PEARL8511.pdf>
80% of the bare bulbs made it past 1,000 hrs (which still sucks),
while only about 35% of the covered bulbs survived. If you run a lamp
for 6 hrs per day (evening only), then 1000 hrs is only about 6
months. Not exactly my idea of "long life" CFL bulbs, many of which
claim 6,000 to 15,000 hr lifetimes. If the 20% failure rate at 1,000
hrs figure is assumed, then after 5000 hrs, all of the test bulbs will
be dead.




--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558