In article
,
Charles Bishop wrote:

A building I'm working at has some brick lights - j-boxes recessed into a
wall, and a cover plate on them - that illuminate walkways. The owners
have changed the incandescent bulbs to fluorescent.

I saw a note on the cover of a light that said the tested voltage was 130V.

Would a fluorescent light (small twisty bulb) be able to take 130V? Will
this voltage affect the life of the bulb?

I haven't tested to see if the voltage is indeed 130V, Thought I'd ask
here first in case there was something else I should look at, such as the
model number of the bulb.

I would ask the CFL manufacturer. And if you get bad news, I would ask
other CFL manufacturers.

And I would only use ones that are UL listed, have an FCC ID, and the
Energy Star logo, preferably of "Big 3" brands (GE, Sylvania and Philips).
Especially important is UL listing as "self ballasted lamp". This is
"reasonable assurance" that the CFL will not start a fire if it has
failure of its electronics.

FCC ID is another regulatory hurdle that is actually required of CFLs
with electronic ballasts, yet I have seen many (all being dollar store
stool specimens) without this. And I have known a dollar store stool
specimen to have been hit with a recall for having its plastic ballast
housing not being made of flame-retardant plastic.

"Energy Star" logo is some indication of quality.

"Big 3" brand means someone stands to lose big in a lawsuit if one of
their lightbulbs burns a building down.

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Meanwhile, I have found it to be a common complaint for household line
voltage to be high - like 126 to 130 volts. One friend of mine had
household voltage averaging 127-128 volts - and he and his neighbors
called the power company to get the voltage cranked down a little. My
apartment in the complex that I used to live in had voltage averaging
124 volts. My current line voltage as I type this is 125 volts (it has
been as low as 121 before). CFL manufacturers should be taking this into
account.

One more thing: This sounds like the fixtures are enclosed. I advise a
couple of things to reduce overheating of the CFLs:

1. Use ones rated for heat-hellholes such as recessed ceiling fixtures.
That includes Philips triple arch SLS/"Marathon" units of 15, 20, and 23
watts and non-dimmable. The 15 watt one is especially good for such
fixtures.

2. Otherwise, avoid ones over 13 watts. 18 watt spirals may be OK - they
usually hold up in ceiling fan fixtures. I would avoid 14, 15, 19 and 20
watt spirals, especially 15 and 20 watt spirals, since sometimes their
ballasts heat up more. 13 and 18 watt wattages came about largely from
improvements in the efficiency of the ballasts - so the ballasts heat up
less.

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When line voltage is high, I would avoid magnetic ballasts. Excessive
voltage tends to have only harm to an electronic ballast being shorter
life and greater odds of blowing out with an audible pop sound. Magnetic
ballasts with moderate or moderately severe overvoltage can overheat and
possibly catch fire. Magnetic ballasts for CFLs in my experience lack
"Class P" thermal protection.

So far, I have yet to see a spiral CFL with a magnetic ballast.

Don Klipstein )