"Ozzie" wrote in :

I've been reading some of the recent posts, on CFL's. Maybe I haven't
read enough of them, to find the same thing, which happened to mine.

First, I'm really disappointed, they don't have the life span, as
normal bulbs. My packages claim to have a life span, up to 7 years.
That's probably the "got cha", the "up to". But, I've never had to
replace my bulbs, as often as I do these. I've now replaced a grand
total of 14, which failed prematurely. This is in a 5 month time span.
These are/were the dimmable mini's, 75 watt, with a power factor of
0.90. They are listed as UL, and energy star, and claims to use only
15 watts.

Something else about these things. I've now had 3 of them go out,
which let out a puff of smoke. It's a foul smelling odor. Exactly what
is being released?




probably an electrolytic cap venting,in the electronic ballast.
many electrolytics only have a lifetime of a few 1000 hrs.


--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net