Compact Flourescent Lights and Magnets

[W1RKW]

I bought a bunch of compact flourescent light bulbs in an effort to reduce energy consumption at the QTH.  I saw these 3-way compact F-lights and decided to try them because my wife likes to change the light level in the TV room. So what the heck I bought 2.  One worked out pretty good but the other was sort weird when it was on.  It was dim.  So I said to myself rather than buy another one or go exchange it I will simply use a single brightness compact job.  That was fine.

The other day I wanted if mess around with the dim 3-way so I stuck into a socket and powered it up.  I don't know if anyone has ever noticed when flourescent tubes, when they're cold have this wave effect that travels in the tube. This same effect was happening inside the spiral of the compact flourescent bulb that was dim.  I put it into a socket and let it run for 5 or so minutes to warm it up.  Its brightness didn't change much over the time but I noticed this wave effect that was occurring in the spiral tube.  I never noticed effect before in compact flourescents.  What was interesting was this wave effect was eminating from both ends of the tube and traveling toward the top of the spiral.  Sort of intrigued by this I got this notion to put a powerful magnet next to the tube. I noticed I could change the rate of the wave effect depending on the position of the magnet.  I also found depending on the position of the magnet I could change the overall brightness of the dim compact flourescent bulb. I could actually position the magnet in such a way the bulb would be at the normal expected brightness and this wave effect in the tube would essentially disappear. 

Just wondering if anyone else has messed around with these  and why this did what I was seeing.

[k4kyv]

I bought one a couple of weeks ago, and notice that when I first turn it on it is dim, but after a few minutes it comes up to normal brightness.  The older one I replaced always came on full brightness  instantly.

Also, notice the new ones I bought have about a two second delay after the voltage is turned on before they light up.

Have you noticed any rf noise from yours?

[W1RKW]

Hi Don,
About 85% of the bulbs in my house are compact flourescent bulbs.  All of them except for one is RF quiet. And that one that is noisy is in a closet so it's not ON a lot but my bedside RCVR will pick it up when it is ON.  The station doesn't hear it which is good.  I guess that's because the antennas are far away compared to the bedside RCVR antenna which is indoors.

The other bulbs are standard incandescent bulbs which are on dimmers.  The dimmers create more noise than the noisy compact flourescent. 

A few years ago I went nuts at Home Depot and bought more than I needed in compact flourescent bulbs as they had some rather cheap ones for something like $1.49 ea.  They're still running strong and they're quiet RF wise.  And what's nice about these bulbs they come up to full brightness in a matter of seconds.  I had a few crap out prematurely but still I'm a head of the game cost wise and I've seen a significant reduction in the electric bill because of them.  But overall they're RF dead.

The brand is DuraBright