CFl Lighting Infomation

GrimReefa

Well-Known Member
History

The compact fluorescent lamp was invented by Ed Hammer, an engineer with General Electric in response to the 1973 oil crisis. While it met its design goals, it would have cost GE about 25 million USD to build new factories to produce them and the invention was shelved.The design was eventually leaked out and copied by others.


Lifespan

Modern CFLs typically have a Lifespan of between 6,000 and 15,000 hours, whereas incandescent lamps are usually manufactured to have a lifespan of 750 hours or 1,000 hours.These lifetimes are quoted according to IEC60969, which specifies that "life to 50% of failures shall be not less than value declared by the manufacturer". The lifetime of any lamp depends on many factors including manufacturing defects, exposure to voltage spikes, mechanical shock, frequency of cycling on and off and ambient operating temperature, among other factors.

Energy consumption


For a given light output, CFLs use between one fifth and one quarter of the power of an equivalent incandescant.For example, lighting accounted for approximately 9% of household electricity usage in the United States in 2001,so widespread use of CFLs could save most of this, for a total energy saving of about 7% from household usage.

Cost

In addition to the above savings on energy costs, the average life of a CFL is between 8 and 15 times that of incandescents. While the purchase price of a CFL is typically 3 to 10 times greater than that of an equivalent incandescent lamp, the extended lifetime (less lamps to replace and reduced labor) and lower energy use will compensate for the higher initial cost in many applications. A US article stated "A household that invested $90 in changing 30 fixtures to CFLs would save $440 to $1,500 over the five-year life of the bulbs, depending on your cost of electricity. Look at your utility bill and imagine a 12% discount to estimate the savings."
CFLs can fail prematurely if overheated and so current recommendations for fully enclosed, unventilated light fixtures, such as those found recessed into some insulated ceilings, are either to use 'reflector CFLs' (R-CFL)or to replace such fixtures with those designed for normal CFLs.
 

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Katilah

Active Member
I got 2 phillips Marathon 24w True Daylight bulbs (Really good blue spectrum in these puppies) for $9.99 CDN
 
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