GEC Genura
 

About a couple of years ago I bought two of these in R80 23w form for a
couple of lamps that get fairly heavy use. The anglepoise on the
electronics workbench and the computer keyboard light. To save on running
costs and to allow easy movement of the anglepoise due to lower heat. They
were very expensive - IIRC something like 15 quid each. And one has failed
- not the workshop one that gets bashed a bit, but the computer one which
never gets touched. They're said to have a life of 10,000 hours. So even
at 4 hours a day - an over generous estimate - they should last about 7
years.
So much for cost saving CFLs...

--
*If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

GEC Genura
 

In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
About a couple of years ago I bought two of these in R80 23w form for a
couple of lamps that get fairly heavy use. The anglepoise on the
electronics workbench and the computer keyboard light. To save on running
costs and to allow easy movement of the anglepoise due to lower heat. They
were very expensive - IIRC something like 15 quid each. And one has failed
- not the workshop one that gets bashed a bit, but the computer one which
never gets touched. They're said to have a life of 10,000 hours. So even
at 4 hours a day - an over generous estimate - they should last about 7
years.
So much for cost saving CFLs...

Genuras are electrodeless induction fluorescents.
Their life is pretty much the life of the electronic control gear.
The life of electronic components is governed by random processes,
and it's not so much a case of wearing out, as a probability that
the lamp will have failed after so many hours. That means the life,
whilst long, has a much bigger standard deviation. The other one
could go on for 20,000 hours. The biggest effect on life of such
components is temperature -- roughly, the expected life halves
for each 10C temperature rise. Therefore using the Genura in a
well ventilated fitting is the most important factor for lamp
life. I've had some which did over 20,000 hours, but then you
start getting into the realm of the phosphor wearing out. I
recall one infant mortility too.

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

GEC Genura
 

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
About a couple of years ago I bought two of these in R80 23w form for a
couple of lamps that get fairly heavy use. The anglepoise on the
electronics workbench and the computer keyboard light. To save on running
costs and to allow easy movement of the anglepoise due to lower heat. They
were very expensive - IIRC something like 15 quid each. And one has failed
- not the workshop one that gets bashed a bit, but the computer one which
never gets touched. They're said to have a life of 10,000 hours. So even
at 4 hours a day - an over generous estimate - they should last about 7
years.
So much for cost saving CFLs...

Thats entirely consistent with mfr claims. 10k hrs is a mean figure.


NT

GEC Genura
 

On Sat, 15 Nov 2008 10:23:56 -0800 (PST), wrote:

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
About a couple of years ago I bought two of these in R80 23w form for a
couple of lamps that get fairly heavy use. The anglepoise on the
electronics workbench and the computer keyboard light. To save on running
costs and to allow easy movement of the anglepoise due to lower heat. They
were very expensive - IIRC something like 15 quid each. And one has failed
- not the workshop one that gets bashed a bit, but the computer one which
never gets touched. They're said to have a life of 10,000 hours. So even
at 4 hours a day - an over generous estimate - they should last about 7
years.
So much for cost saving CFLs...

Thats entirely consistent with mfr claims. 10k hrs is a mean figure.


4 hrs (generous) x 365 x 2 years = Ca. 3.0k hrs

This was my experience also. 8-((

Due, so I'm told, to running it cap up in a shade.

Derek

GEC Genura
 

On Sat, 15 Nov 2008 13:45:35 +0000 (GMT) someone who may be "Dave
Plowman (News)" wrote this:-

They
were very expensive - IIRC something like 15 quid each. And one has failed
- not the workshop one that gets bashed a bit, but the computer one which
never gets touched. They're said to have a life of 10,000 hours. So even
at 4 hours a day - an over generous estimate - they should last about 7
years.
So much for cost saving CFLs...

The one which failed may still have saved you money, if that is why
you bought it.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

GEC Genura
 

Oh, and by the way, they're "GE" Genuras, not "GEC" (completely
unrelated companies, the latter of which went from being britain's
largest private employer in early 1980's with a large cash mountain
(for the time) to completely bankrupt 20 years later.

GEC's lighting division was GEC Osram, but was sold back to the
Germans (from which it had been obtained after WWII) as part of
the GEC/Siemens collaborations sometime in the late 1980's.
(As a GEC employee, we used to be able to buy Osram bulbs
through staff discount until that happened.)

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

GEC Genura
 

On 16 Nov 2008 14:24:21 GMT Andrew Gabriel wrote :
GEC's lighting division was GEC Osram, but was sold back to the
Germans (from which it had been obtained after WWII)

WW1 - see http://www.twickenhamurc.org.uk/whoswho.htm , bottom of
page. I bought a copy of The GEC Research Laboratories 1919-84 a
while back (it's on a ship somewhere between the UK and
Australia) and a very interesting read it is too.

--
Tony Bryer, 'Software to build on' from Greentram
www.superbeam.co.uk www.superbeam.com www.greentram.com

GEC Genura
 

In article ,
Tony Bryer writes:
On 16 Nov 2008 14:24:21 GMT Andrew Gabriel wrote :
GEC's lighting division was GEC Osram, but was sold back to the
Germans (from which it had been obtained after WWII)

WW1 - see http://www.twickenhamurc.org.uk/whoswho.htm , bottom of
page. I bought a copy of The GEC Research Laboratories 1919-84 a
while back (it's on a ship somewhere between the UK and
Australia) and a very interesting read it is too.

It's more complicated than that, and I must confess I don't
understand one of the bits. Osram seems to have started up
independantly in both England and in Germany around the turn
of the century, and I've never seen anything which says what
the relationship between these two bits was. Any mention I
find of one part at that time completely fails to say
anything about the other part. The English bit became GEC
around WWI, but the German bit which was owned by Siemens
merged into GEC after WWII (I presume as part of the war
reparations, but I've never seen that explicitly stated).
The whole lot was sold back to Siemens sometime around the
late 1980's (I recall we could suddenly no longer get
GEC Osram bulbs on staff discount;-).

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