In article en.co.uk,
Roderick Stewart writes:
In article , Arfa Daily wrote:
Go take a look at

http://www.pavouk.org/hw/lamp/en_index.html

Fascinating. I'd never have thought anybody would bother to repair a
light bulb.

Oh dear, I've got a box just like that one...
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/diy/
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/diy2/

Actually, I haven't reused the control gear from a CFL for some
time now as discrete electronic control gear units have become
more readily available at half-way reasonable prices, and I've
switched to using those as you'll see from the second (more
recent) web page.

However, I just had a 7 year old IKEA CFL die (an ES version of
the 20W IKEA one shown in the first picture). It was one of many
I bought at the same time. They've all lasted ages in heavy use,
except for one very early electronics failure. I transplanted the
almost unused tube from that early failure into the one whose tube
just died, and it's working again! It was a kind of challenge,
having saved away the dead lamp for just this purpose many years
back. The cost of CFL's now certainly doesn't merit this though!

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]