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Originally Posted by omon
i'm in constraction trade, i deal with these lights on daily basis, they do work with dimmers, regular switch is fine, assuming you have dimmable ballast. any flurecent bulb can be dimmed(with exception of screw in types with build in ballast.)
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The screw in type (CFL) are what we were talking about. Some of those have dimmable ballast.
I will disagree with you on the other. All Fluorescents can be dimmed.
The ones you are talking about have the electronic dimmable ballast. And they dont use regular dimmer switches. Although they may look the same on the outside, the internals are different. Using a regular dimmer switch can cause a ballast to overheat.
A regular "Old School" mag ballast can also be dimmed but thats where the high cost dimmers come in. And they are a PITA to callibrate.
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there is also a concern(so i've read in a mag.) that ballast creates emf that isn't good for ppl. while big fixtures 2 by 2 or 2 by 4, have shelded ballast, screw ins, have not.
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Well they are not allowed to be used near any marine radio or emergency electronic equipment. I think thats like the cellphones on airplanes rule. Better to be safe than sorry.
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they also loose brightness over time. put in a new bulb, a mounth later it will loose about 10% of its brightness.
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Thats because no one ever does a 100 hour burn in. The ballast becomes stable after 100 hours of use.
The other thing that contributes to dim lights is the life of the bulb. Bulb life has nothing to do with how long the bulb would stay lit if left on or even how long one would burn.
Bulb life measures the amuont of "Starts" the bulb has. A fluorescent bulb burns a little the coating on its electrodes every time its is started. The industry "Burn Time" standard is 3 hours. So what that package tells you when it says that it last for "20,000 hours" is that it can be turned on 6667 times (20,000/3=6667)
Another contributor is the lowered amount of mercury present.
OOps sorry to bore with this stuff.