CCFL

My experience - if we're talking about the ones you can buy in stores - is that it really depends on who you buy them from. The bulbs I've purchased at Home Depot I'm very happy with. I've been using some of them for a couple of years now with no complaint.

The ones I've bought at WalMart I'm not so happy with - they turn on dim and don't brighten up for several minutes.

I've never had one burn out, but like I said, it's only been a couple of years.

The later brand names are better. Less mercury = longer time to full brightness.

the ones where the warranty requires you to send it back to them with $4.95 to mail you a "free" warranty replacement are the bad ones. It costs more to return the old one than to buy a new one.

They improve with time. The really cheap ones fron China = junk

Is starting dim a bad thing? It seemed to me that every hotel in Europe had bulbs which started dim, and got brighter. I though it was a cool feature, and was a little depressed that I could not find the "start dim" florescent lights here in Canada.

Or am I missing the point here as usual?

Regards.

It's OK in my living room, not so OK in my closet.

I have some that start a little dim and get brighter, and some that start at full brightness. The cheaper brands seem to be affected by the outside cold temperatures while the better brands aren't. I haven't had any fail yet, but I'm only going on about a year of service with this batch of lights in this house. I'm not sure about the 5 watt models, but I have a bunch of 8 and 13 watt bulbs with no noticeable difference between them.

I'm holding on to my old incandescent bulbs, though - I'll need something to put back into the sockets if I ever move!

Hey guys...

Thanks for all the great comments!

Our main business is agricultural lighting, and I don't want to offer product to people that isn't proven.

Has anyone used a large quantity on a single dimmer???

Just wondering..

Donald

While a great idea and an excellent investment for the user on the basis of reduced energy consumption, many of the ones commonly available at home improvement retail outlets bear the legend "not dimmable" or equivalent. The thinking needin assimilation is that the bulbs save energy in themselves by simple substitution of the tungsten heater in the common-or-garden light bulb with something more efficient, so why use a dimmer to save power (rhetorical question)?

For a cupboard light that is on for only seconds per day and requiring instant starting, tungsten is the correct choice of lamp.

A recent calculation showed that in the UK with domestic electricity prices approaching £0.10 per kWh on some tariffs, substituting a 40W lamp with a 9W low-energy light emitter of the same brightness can achieve attractive investment status for lamps that are switched on for only 15 minutes per day. As the on-time requirement increases, the attraction becomes greater. This calculation might foretell the end of the tungsten filament as an electrical light source.

The dimmers are needed to reduce the light intensity to the certain agricultural demands, not Just to save energy.

Actually, we just had a trade show where we demonstrated several brands of CCFL, in the 5 and 8 watt.

I was amazed at some samples I had received that were NOT marked as dimming Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps, actually dimmed BETTER than some that were marked Dimming..

The thing that concerns me is, these units are being advertised as 20,000 to 25,000 hour life lamps, and it all sounds good, and if true would not only save large users energy,which translates into real money, but also save in less lamp replacements.

Also, I wonder about lumen depreciation?

Does anyone know of any life/cycle tests done on these type lamps?

Thanks again guys for all the great comments..

Donald

I've used them for about 4 years, central USA. Most failures I have had were in enclosed fixtures with poor heat dissipation. If your application is more open, you should get reasonable life. I believe Phillips offers dimmable ones which are also "green" rated--i.e. lower mercury content. In most fluorescent tubes, the average rated life is based on a 12-hour "on" cycle. If you are trying to maintain constant light levels, as is common in many poultry houses, then I suspect you will get a good life span because temperature control in these environments is also critical.

A less commonly addressed problem if you use a large number of electronic loads will be harmonic loading of your lines and neutral. On a 3-phase system, the neutral current can reach 150 or possibly even 200% of the phase currents for highly harmonic loads, because these odd-level harmonics do not cancel out between the phases. On a single-phase system this is not a problem. I do recommend a rudimentary lightning/surge protection, such as can be obtained with a low-cost surge suppressor mounted at your panelboard.

Best wishes.

See here: www.elecosn.com

Here are dimmable LED Bulb, and LED incandescent bulb