On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:51:57 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

In article ,
"David WE Roberts" writes:
Got a lampshade from The Range and the sticker inside says
"Lamp shape picture of traditional bulb shape 60W
Lamp shape picture of CFL 12W"

This has me puzzling.
Is there something about CFLs which makes the base much hottter than a
traditional bulb?
What about the CFLs with a globe around the outside which look like
traditional lamps?
Or has someone done a dumb thing and thought "The equivalent to a 60W
filament bulb is a 12W CFL so that is the maximum size of CFL to fit"?

Struggling to find the logic here.

An ordinary light bulb runs at up to 200C surface temperature.
The electronics of a CFL would very quickly die if they ran that
hot. The tube of a CFL is expected to run at 100C max, and the
control gear normally no higher than that.

Another factor is that you wouldn't be able to fit a 60W CFL into
many fittings designed for a 60W filament lamp.

BTW, a 60W equivalent CFL would be nearer 15W.

The spirel CFLs ones will often fit where the stick
ones don't shine (!)





--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%