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Jim Yanik

(Don Klipstein) wrote in
:

In article , Jim Yanik
wrote:
"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.

Many electrolytics are rated to only last a few 1,000's of hours at
some
specific high temperature, usually 85 or 105 degrees C.

but then there are ESR problems and failures.electrolytics DO fail at lower
temps.

If the odor is "burnt electronics", then I suspect some other part
(or
other parts) blowing due to random failure or age/heat failure.

I have heard of CFLs with design that hasthe electronics blow when
the
bulb part has aged into "a state of failure" (my words). I do think
that manufacturers of those would do well to add a fuse that blows as
a result of electronics failure, and blows to keep the electronics
(fuse-acting subset thereof) from having to serve as a fuse with smoke
output.
It's a shame that American businesses have so much pressure for
profitibility on short-term basis that they are sometimes rewarded
rather than punished for improving their bottom line by layoffs of
their employees that will make them grow longer-term (salespeople that
gain new customers and R&D).

- Don Klipstein )

The CFL is a throwaway item once it's failed;there's no point in putting
in a fuse to protect the electronics,they will not be reused.

since the CFL has died,he could take it apart and look around to see what's
failed.It could be a leaking cap,a burnt resistor,or fired
transistor.There's not much on the ballast PCB;I've got one right here in
front of me.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net