On Thu, 9 Jun 2011 17:00:47 -0700 (PDT), bob haller wrote:

On Jun 9, 7:34*pm, Smarty wrote:
On 6/9/2011 5:48 PM, larry moe 'n curly wrote:

Smarty wrote:
Is there such a thing as a true "instant start" CFL which produces full
intensity brightness as soon as it is turned on?
I have some. *They come on immediately, turn off, on, off, and then
finally stay on. * They're first generation Philips CFLs with a
permanent 60 Hz ballast in the base and replacable fluorescent tube.
Heavy, too -- some floor lamps can't be trusted to stand up with one
installed.

As for modern CFLs, I don't know what brands or models are instant-on,
but I know they exist because some of them have circuit boards
designed for a thermistor (temperature sensitive resistor), but the
thermistor is left out (Max-lite, both original large base and newer
small base models).

I thank you for your reply and wonder if any of the modern CFLs which
use the circuit board you describe actually do come up to full
brightness very rapidly. If you have any specifics, please provide them
as I am glad to explore other options, mostly out of curiosity since I
have found the hybrid GE bulbs.

It seems that heating the filament and vaporizing some mercury cannot be
done instantly, despite claims to the contrary. GE's solution, using a
second halogen bulb temporarily, makes a whole lot of sense to me, and
illustrates the reality that a purely fluorescent lamp will take a
little time to warm up.

In the past I had a X 10 motion sensitive system on my pole light.
Nice idea worked terrible temperature and noisey line unstable.

Often the problem with X-10.

I thought about some work arounds but decided it wasnt worth it.

A common conclusion. ;-)

Has anyone tried LED lamps on X 10?

Good question! If there are any incandescent's on the string X-10 should work
fine, though the nonlinear load might mess up the signaling even more than
normal. With a pure LED load dimming might also be a problem.

they didnt exist when I last played with it.

X 10 was wonderful for my elderly grandma it controlled so much around
here

X-10 is terribly unreliable. Some had good luck with it and others not so
much. The technology is really poor. Too bad no one picked up the good idea
and made it really workable.