Ray

Gun Grape,

Thanks for the info.

That ballast info and what all one should do if it breaks was useful.

What type of dimmers can one use with the CFLs?

I use CFL.

However, the luminescence is lousy!

__________________


"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

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HAKUNA MATATA

Parihaka

While the central socket lights in all my rooms are now flourescent, the infill lighting is all halogen which I love dearly. Anyone have the pros and cons of halogens?

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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.)
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.
they also loose brightness over time. put in a new bulb, a mounth later it will loose about 10% of its brightness.
leds seem to be better choice, but they are more expencive, and also require, transformer, you can run them using resistors, but it won,t be as efficiant as with voltage regulator. it too creates emf.
halogens, more efficient than incandesants, not as efficient as leds or fluressent, but simple, cheap. a minus is that they tend to get really hot. missuse can create fire. i have a flashligt at work, its a batt from a drill with 50w mr16 bulb, it gets so hot i light up my cig, from it, without even touching it, radiant heat is enough, try it with any other bulb.

HistoricalDavid

I have ones with tubes curled up to fit into a lightbulb... do those count?

THL

Is this just for flourescents?


Never knew that...good to know.

And here I always thought they were "just" lightbulbs but you people have made me afraid to use anything but candles and my smaller, dumber cat would just end up starting herself on fire and burning down the entire complex I live in if I did that.

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"I didn't intend for this to take on a political tone. I'm just here for the drugs."-Nancy Reagan, when asked a political question at a "Just Say No" rally

"He no play-a da game, he no make-a da rules."-Earl Butz, on the Pope's attitude toward birth control

Ironduke

They heat up to a thousand degrees. Tip it over and you've got a fire.

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HistoricalDavid

Halogens are hot? Incandescents get up to 3,000 degrees C.

Canmoore

Banning something is ridiculous, education and incentives to purchase greener light bulbs is better than just banning something. Soon we will have people asking to ban SUV's and trucks unless you own a business or are a farmer.

omon

what??? are you high?

take a look at melting point table, 3000 c will melt almost anything, even 3000f(1648c) is still a lot.

Name Symbol Melting Point (°C)
Helium He (Does not solidify
at normal pressure
even at absolute zero)
Hydrogen H -258.975
Neon Ne -248.447
Oxygen O -222.65
Fluorine F -219.52
Nitrogen N -209.86
Argon Ar -189.19
Krypton Kr -157.22
Xenon Xe -111.7
Chlorine Cl -100.84
Radon Rn -71
Mercury Hg -38.72
Bromine Br -7.1
Francium Fr 27
Caesium Cs 28.55
Gallium Ga 29.76
Rubidium Rb 39.64
Phosphorus (white) P 44.1
Potassium K 63.35
Sodium Na 98
Iodine I 113.5
Sulfur S 115.36
Indium In 156.76
Lithium Li 180.7
Selenium Se 221
Tin Sn 232.06
Polonium Po 254
Bismuth Bi 271.52
Astatine At 302
Thallium Tl 304
Cadmium Cd 321.18
Lead Pb 327.6
Zinc Zn 419.73
Tellurium Te 449.65
Antimony Sb 630.9
Neptunium Np 640
Plutonium Pu 640
Magnesium Mg 650
Aluminium Al 660.25
Radium Ra 700
Barium Ba 729
Strontium Sr 769
Cerium Ce 798
Arsenic As 817
Europium Eu 822
Ytterbium Yb 824
Calcium Ca 839
Einsteinium Es 860
Lanthanum La 920
Praseodymium Pr 931
Promethium Pm 931
Germanium Ge 938.3
Silver Ag 961
Berkelium Bk 986
Americium Am 994
Neodymium Nd 1016
Actinium Ac 1050
Gold Au 1064.58
Curium Cm 1067
Samarium Sm 1072
Copper Cu 1084.6
Uranium U 1132
Manganese Mn 1246
Beryllium Be 1278
Gadolinium Gd 1312
Terbium Tb 1357
Dysprosium Dy 1407
Silicon Si 1410
Nickel Ni 1453
Holmium Ho 1470
Cobalt Co 1495
Erbium Er 1522
Yttrium Y 1526
Iron Fe 1535
Scandium Sc 1539
Thulium Tm 1545
Palladium Pd 1552
Protactinium Pa 1600
Titanium Ti 1660
Lutetium Lu 1663
Thorium Th 1755
Platinum Pt 1772
Zirconium Zr 1852
Chromium Cr 1857
Vanadium V 1902
Rhodium Rh 1966
Technetium Tc 2200
Hafnium Hf 2227
Ruthenium Ru 2250
Boron B 2300
Iridium Ir 2443
Niobium Nb 2468
Molybdenum Mo 2617
Tantalum Ta 2996
Osmium Os 3027
Rhenium Re 3180
Tungsten W 3407
Carbon (diamond) C 3550
Carbon (graphite) C 3675
Carbon (amorphous) C 3675

fillament gets very hot , more in halogens than anywhere else, there it might be 3000c, but who cares if bulb is filled halogen, or vacum in incandecents case, surfice temp, are way lower. otherways you'll melt the glass housing, and everything else around, almost as soon as you plug it in.

SRB

I vote NO. To me question is ridiculus. I prefer incandescent PHILLIPS SOFT 100W for me there isnt any better light source if we dont count sun.

If we go in this direction of banning proposition we could even ban fast breathing because more CO2 will be created.

__________________

USSR EXPERIMENTAL SPITFIRE

gunnut

Hey what's wrong with pro wrestling?

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gunnut

More liberal socialist mentality for you. They legislate morality even more so than conservatives. All in the name of "protecting the earth."

HistoricalDavid

Unsurprisingly, your own list includes tungsten at 3,407 degrees C. Tungsten, of course, being the material of choice for lightbulb filaments.

Gun Grape

It depends. Bad answer I know, Only some CFLs are dimmable.. I am not sure how the bulbs are packaged in your country. In the US, it will state somewhere on the package that it can be dimmed and most give the recommended dimmer switch to use.

I know that doesn't help much, but the best info I have.

Yes, its from the EPAs factsheet "Mercury in Compact Flurescent Lamps"

Gun Grape

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.



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.

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.