How to Repair Energy Savers??

These devices are not designed to be serviceable. To be more precise they're designed to be unserviceable. In most cases circuit components are forced to work on too high temp, because of bad cooling, plus they're totally unprotected from line disturbances and spikes, Fl bulbs are overdriven, etc so are practically programmed to fail long before advertised lifetime. The most common failure is one side filament burnout, that won't permit a restart or a total fusing due to PS destruction, both cases economically unrepairable. Anyway careful not to brake the bulb and mess with the mercury inside. S.M.

It would not be worth the effort for companies to repair these lights,and send them out as replacements for all the reasons given by simplemind.

However some close up photos of the pc board might help if you are determined to risk a repair.

I know for sure that saver bulb companies carry out repairs on returns and replacement under warranty. Alternative a downstream industry has been set up by technicians who buy fused savers from companies and everywhere and repair them..especially the circuit and then again float it into market at lower price but without warranty.

Physically Broken or damaged savers are not repaired....

I think it\s waste of resources not to repair them and just throw them away to add to already existing environmental problem.

Today I opened up a saver and found that a soldered wire had broken off from the board. In the absence of clear solder point on the circuit board, I am not sure where to soldered it again as this breakage only seems to be the problem with the saver.

Can you get hold of another (preferably faulty) identical unit, and, take it apart to see where the wire goes?

In the absence of a circuit diagram that's exactly what I would be doing.

Old circuit parts from physically damaged or irreparable savers and those discarded by users disinclined to refurbished ones are generally used for replacing burned out parts in savers under repair.

http://shaddack.twibright.com/projects/reveng_cfl/

personally i've registered a C2611 http://www.datasheet4u.net/download.php?id=672968 failure on ?? 2 occasions likely there (some ya)

you should test your repair if off the ® ("home improvement" = modified circuit) for fire-safety (who has the time ...)

i'm usually happy if these fail cos there's a lot of usable components inside (muh-hah)
and i can buy a newer ver. :)

Thanks, the link does seem to help a bit..but if an exploded view of the diagram, orthographic if possible, would be easier to follow for a layman in electronics!

I still can't find out the terminal where I can solder the other wire??

BTW there is no copy right problem in Pakistan in this case....

Time is not a big issue here but the opportunity work is for the huge number of unemployed. Some with some knowledge are making UPS\s for commercial use.

This is from some Chinese manufacturer...have a look!!

PCB for energy saving lamp

Well, that certainly is a nice big board! Trouble shooting should be no problem. If a lot of the same type can be collected, good boards could be matched up to good bulbs. I would expect the same component is going to fail on the board, but who knows?

Does Time X Effort = Cost of a new lamp?

Yes!

At Sam's Club they are selling an 8-pack of the 13W (60W equiv.) GE CFL for under $3. Yes, $2.88 for an 8-pack. I sure as heck can't afford to fix any of those. I date all my CFL's on installation. Some last about 6 months, others have gone 4 years. None by the way, make the advertised 5 year point. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the failures. Orientation doesn't seem to play a factor as some of my longest lasting CFL locations have been in small, enclosed hallway ceiling fixture, horizontal, frequent use, switched on and off. Conventional wisdom says those should fail the fastest. I've had some in lamp fixtures, open, pointed up and they fail in six months, switched on, left on for the evening and switched off at bedtime. Go figure.

Some of the new LED energy savers are quite expensive. They may have a nice big pc board, too. I like to tinker with things for experience. The lessons I learn on expendable items pay off when I fix something important.

I rob CFLs for the little round donut thing (torus?) to make joule thieves. They are hard to find. The rest of a joule thief is easy to find parts.