Are Compact Fluorecent Lamps a Health Hazard ?

Hi,

In your post you stated that CFL's have to limit their output in the broadcast band 150 KHz and up.

You also note that you suspect that the CFL's in your home, on a different circuit are interfering with wireless remote control operation of other lights in your house.

I would like to know what frequency band your wireless remote is operating under. The problem could be due to conducted interference through your home wiring but most likely radiated RF.

Again which wireless product and frequency band is being interfered with by CFL's ?

Thanks in advance

Don't recall the part number of the Radio Shack product, but the control unit is shaped like a wall switch and can be mounted as such if desired. It transmits at 313 MHz and is encoded as an FM signal, because there are four different switches on the one wall-mount control unit. I strongly doubt the interference is at that frequency, although I haven't checked. I think the CFL excitation frequency, in the tens of kHz, is getting back via conduction into the receiver circuits which control the FET-based switches, and it is these which are responding directly to the audio or just above audio excitation.

I didn't go into that level of detail, but the Part 18 limit below 150 kHz is quite relaxed to allow for basically unfiltered rectification harmonics, which can be as high as 40 mV. Not sure how they measure that, as the reference source impedance for these measurements isn't specified below 150 kHz. It ranges from 5 - 30 Ohms from 0.01 - 0.15 MHz.

I've heard some people are particularly sensitive to the N-rays emitted from CFL's.

N-rays?

N Rays are described on Google. It's an amusing bit of science history.

Got it. Apparently it's not just amusing history. Germans right up through official gov't policy, are worried about E-rays which can only be detected by dowsers; no other scientific instruments, and the E-rays cause cancer. They move desks in offices and hospital beds around to avoid E-ray hot spots.

There is truly nothing new under the sun.

Well I for one have a health issue with CCF. I find the CCF causes a flickering appearance when I view my computer screen. This causes eye fatigue in a couple of hours. since I work with a computer this is a major problem.

The house we bought had all CCF bulbs when we moved in. Up here it gets cold during winter; and the CCF do not start in the cold. Last night my wife slipped and fell in the dark as we arrived home. With no outside light it gets extremely dangerous.

Since resistive filament bulbs are going to be banned next year according to news reports I have seen; what are we suppoed to do about security lights outside in the winter? With the financial crunch several neighborhoods are now reporting increased thefts and break-ins in garages even when people are home. Eliminating outdoor lights will just make it worse. Oh yeah CCF are real safe! (for burglars)

Time to get a gun!!

CCFs (cold cathode fluorescents) are slightly different than compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Believe but am not sure that CCFs operate at the mains frequency, just a boosted, current limited potential, whereas CFLs, as noted in a previous post, operate in the tens of kilocycles. Hence the opportunity for CCFs to flicker, but not CFLs.

Gee and here I thought CCF stood for Curli -Cued Fu****g lights. Either way they don't work worth a darn in the cold and are too dim even when its warm. Pretty damn useless as far as I'm concerned. And now they complain about the mercury. So who's the nit-wit that invented these "green" bulbs in the first place? I used to get some heat from our light bulbs. Now have to get more portable heaters to make up for lack of heat from CC whatevers. So any savings from bulbs are now lost in more electric heaters. The only guys winning are the ones selling $3.50 bulbs instead of $0.99 cent bulbs. Breakage is about the same. We get so many power surges and interruptions the new bulbs don't last any longer.

So far my experience with CFLs has not recommended them. I have found that the glass envelopes are typically not very hardy. Typically my experience with CFLs is that they don't put out much light, and though promised to light for more hours, don't, and if you touch them at all they break.< It reminds me of how when CDs were first being introduced, and they were supposed to be indestructible, and be better. The price of an album on vinyl doubled and tripled on a CD that was actually very delicate.< People blame their problems on everything outside of themselves they can think of. So it may well not have a thing at all to do with the new lightbulbs they bought. LED lighting is very likely to doom CFLs, for it is hardy stuff.< I have had to crawl around under houses quite a bit, and I wear either a battery powered LED headlamp, flashlight, or take a scoop with a tungsten bulb on a E Cord. Ten minutes in a scoop crawling around with a CFL, and you might as well have candles and a 60 year old Ray O Vac.

>

And if it is any help for you in the future;

The new New Zealand government has recently overturned the legislation of the previous government which was to eliminate the incandescents and make the CFLs compulsory.

One small step for man one giant leap for mankind. If you ever need supplies of good incandescents in the future, just shoot thru your orders and I will be glad to assist. Cheers and a light beer to you.

Sore eyes and headaches from regular light bulbs and cfls is caused by the temperature of the light emitted. Most light bulbs emit 3000 kelvin light or 4100 kelvin. cfls on the other hand can be bought in 3000, 4100, 5000 or 6500 kelvin. It has been found through research that employees are more productive in 5000 Kelvin lighting in comparison to 3000 Kelvin and 4100 Kelvin lighting by reducing headaches and eyestrain. This is because our eyes have evolved to be accustomed to the light of the sun which is 5000 Kelvin. In the U.S., the 5000 Kelvin cfls are usually marked as "daylight" and in a blue package. In my living room, I have four cfls in my ceiling fan (two regular cfls and two daylight cfls). We no longer get the headaches and eyestrain from the lights.

Don't know about any real live documented health effects, I put them in my living room and after a week or two my wife made me change them back to incandescent. She complained that the color of the light was annoying her and causing "headaches". (Like she needed an excuse for more "headaches"...) I put the bulbs outside in the garage fixtures as security lighting and they have performed flawlessly through 2 winters now.

I like the daylight color but my wife says people look washed out - don't look good - under that bright white light.

I haven't noticed any particular problems with sore eyes/headaches except what would be normally experienced by spending too long perusing those addictive CR4 threads.

I have also noticed that life doesn't seem drastically better than the old incandescents. They used to give me 1 - 2 years (more like 1 with our poorly regulated power supply).

The CFL bulbs are seem to be giving 1-3 years. Not much improvement, if any.

One advantage of CFL's is that, if you look hard enough, you can get daylight color temperature which I find better than the "warm white" of the incandescents and most CFL bulbs.

LED's tend to use a decent daylight color. It will be interesting to see if in mass usage they will achieve the life currently being claimed.

The main reason I use CFL's is for the efficiency advantage, even though it probably doesn't make a big dent in my power bill.