On Mar 24, 3:24*pm, (Don Klipstein) wrote:
In ,

DerbyDad03 wrote:
I just bought a 3 pack of Sylvania 15W CFL spot lights for my kitchen
fixture.

I know that CFL's take a little while to reach full brightness, but
these take over 2 minutes! *They'd barely be called a "nightlight"
when they first come on.

It's not bad in the morning since it's gentle on the eyes, but at
night it's pretty annoying.

Gotta call Sylvania and see what they say.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000V83WAG?...ag=yahoo-tools
06-20&linkCode=asn

* This is a CFL with an outer bulb. *Those generally start dimmer and take
longer to warm up.

* The reason: *The fluorescent tubing gets hotter with the outer bulb
around it. *Fluorescent lamps only work well over a limited temperature
range, so the ones with outer bulbs are designed to work best at the high
temperature that they achieve.

*- Don Klipstein )

Don,

Thanks for the reply, but your "reason" doesn't explain *why* they
start dimmer or take longer to warm up.

Your reason states 2 facts, both of which I agree with:

1 - The tubes get hotter due to the outer bulb
2 - They are designed to work best at their final operating
temperature

They are also white, they are also made of glass, they also contain
mercury.

All of these facts are true, but they don't explain *why* they take so
long to warm up and acheive maximum output.

If you said something like "If they started brighter and heated up
quicker then the air inside the outer bulb would expand too quickly
and the bulb would explode" *that* would be a reason for the dim start
and the slow warm up.

Is something like that the case?