"Arfa Daily" wrote in
:



"Sylvia Else" wrote in message
...
On 20/09/2011 1:11 PM, Trevor Wilson wrote:
Sylvia Else wrote:
Has anyone here tried retrofitting low ESR capacitors to CFLs with
a view to improving their turn-on performance - i.e. so that they
reach full brightness quickly?

Sylvia.

**The full brightness thing is not associated with the electronics.
It's an
issue with the gas in the tube and, to a lesser extent, the phosphor
coating. You can prove this for yourself, by measuring the light
output of a
standard (iron ballast) fluoro. Light output gradually increases
over a few
seconds (or minutes, depending on ambient temperature).

Don't sweat it anyway, LEDs will replace them in most applications
very soon. I've been mucking about with a couple of these recently:

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/12w-350...-led-emitter-m
etal-strip-12-14v-80310

It delivers almost double the light output of an 11 Watt T5 fluoro
and is far more compact, dimmable and has nicer colour temperature.


Having got used to the higher colour temperatures of CFLs, I find
that I prefer them.

Incandescents weren't given a lower colour temperature because people
preferred them, it was just the way they came out. If the first
practical domestic electric lights had been of daylight colour
temperature, I imagine that's what everyone would always have wanted,
and people would have given short shrift to this yellow rubbish.

However, I note that the led emitter strips are available in higher
colour temperatures.

Sylvia.



I was given to understand that the colour of an incandescent bulb is
what humans are comfortable with, because it closely matches the
colour and spectrum of our sun. As I have said on here before, I for
one, am not comfortable with the light quality from CFLs, no matter
what variety or supposed colour temperature they are. I fully accept
that this might be to do with my eyes or brain or whatever, and that
others don't feel that they have the problem, but by the same token, I
know many other people - particularly over 50's like myself - that
have the same difficulty with them. Thus far, I have not been that
impressed with the spectrum or light quality from LEDs in a domestic
setting either, but this technology is currently moving and improving
fast, so I'll keep an open mind on that at the moment.

Arfa



incandescent lamps color temps do NOT match that of the sun;
"daylight" CT is around 6500K,while incandescents are around 3000K.
Daylight is much "whiter" than incandescent light.

what makes fluorescent lamps yucky is their excess and spiky blue-green and
low red output,but newer CFLs have adjusted their phosphor mix to give a
better spectrum,and you can buy them in diffect CTs like 2700K,3200K,and
even higher.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com