[PLUG-TALK] CFLs (was light sensor)

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Tue, Sep 06, 2011 at 11:37:31PM -0700, John Jason Jordan wrote:
...
> issue is turning them on and off. Incandescents don't do well with that
> either, but it seems to me that CFLs are worse.
...

There are Mercedes CFLs and Porsche CFLs and Yugo CFLs and
Trabant CFLs - a huge range of quality, and a huge range of
expected behaviour.  "Slow turn on" - 50% brightness at turnon,
100% brightness after 20 seconds - seems to be characteristic
of the longest-lived CFLs. 

The best brand in the past was Panasonic - but they could not 
compete with all the Yugo-priced CFLs when consumers are unable
to discern quality and pay for it.  

The best brand currently seems to be the ones they sell at Ikea.

And just about everything I've seen at Fred Meyer, Home Depot,
etc. is short lived, flickery crap.  Trabant quality.

The same is true for LED lights, except they cost four to ten
times as much.  Combined with the fact that the rare earth
materials in the LEDs are scarce and toxic and single sourced
from China.  LED hype makes CFL hype seem truthful by comparison.

The best light source available (besides sunshine - scarce in
winter) is 4 foot long tube fluorescents in electronic ballast
fixtures.  No flicker, instant on, long life $1 bulbs, much
more efficient than CFLs but big aesthetic and retrofit problems.
I would love to see some local artist/craftspersons work on the
last, to increase uptake.

Not far down the road is DALI electronic ballasts.  Complete
computer control, including flicker-free dimming down to 1%.
With proper aesthetics, "light ceilings" (and walls) would
allow room lighting to adapt to occupant needs, follow
time-of-day programs, fill in dark spots, turn off when nobody
is in the room, etc.  

As well, we are learning to make these long life long tubes
with less and less mercury - the Philips Alto contain less
mercury than most CFLs, and last 5 times longer, and are 
easier to recycle. 

Bottom line - don't settle for familiar incandescent behavior;
demand better, and it will appear.  Be careful about what you
buy,  low expections lead to poor results.

Keith



-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs