"Robert Gammon" wrote in message
. com...
Tom G wrote:
"sparty" wrote in message
ups.com...

I was telling my wife today, that I would like to replace a good 75% or
more of our light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs to save on energy.

Her immediate response was, "I have heard that fluorescent lights are
bad for you". Is there any truth to that? Skin Cancer, etc....


Some people, myself included, are induced to have a migraine headache
when subjected to the slight "imperceptible" flicker of some fluorescent
lights. I've never had a problem with the new screw in type bulbs that
replace regular incandescent bulbs but the big tubes in stores were a
problem.


The headaches and dizziness/nausea that these lamps induce in some people
is a result of the 60HZ flicker that the old analog ballasts generate.

The screw in replacement bulbs all use a digital ballast that runs the
lamp at 10,000HZ or higher. This takes the oscillation out of the visual
flicker range for almost everyone.

The 4 foot and 8 foot lamps seen in commercial settings have historically
been an analog ballast. These are changing over slowly to digital
electronic ballasts as the old analog ballasts fail (and its getting
difficult to find a supply of analog ballasts). But given that the
lifetime of a typical ballast is on the order of 15 years, it will take
many more years before all these are replaced.

Color spectrum of hte light has also been an issue. Those commercial
lamps make everything look slightly green and that makes us uneasy. The
new lmaps, screw in and those designed for use with digital ballasts have
improved color output, some event hat rival the BEST of incandescent
bulbs.



Thanks...I never knew that.

Tom G.