Killer light globes

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

"Green", sold by the modern day equivalent of snake oil salesmen.

[WB3JOK]

I agree Bruce. I have been using CFL's throughout the house and shack for almost 4 years now. No failures, no noise and with one exception I don't notice any shortcomings.

I have a CFL in the desk lamp in my shack, and hear no difference on 75m and up whether it's on or off...

I have one on the front and back porch outside in sub zero weather and they work good as well.

What brand are you using? I put them in my unheated garage and the looooong time to warmup is very annoying when I just need to find something and take it back to the house. I would love to find one that doesn't take 5 minutes (at least) to put out anywhere close to its rated light output and color when the temp is near freezing, let alone sub-zero (which fortunately doesn't happen here in southern MO).

-Charles

[Mike/W8BAC]

Charles,

The two porch lights are GE Helical 20 watt interior bulbs. Not meant for outdoor use they say but they are in dry enclosures and under cover so they don't get wet. I expect they take time to warm up but I never look. I use the back door most often and a dual quartz motion sensing spot turns on when I open the back door. That flood's the area.

In the garage I have the same exact problem. I have 6X4' and 1X8' dual tube Modern, high pressure fluorescent fixtures. They are supposed to light faster and brighter than older tubes but they are very dim when cold. In the garage attic is a brand new 100 watt equivalent CFL and it is very dim when cold. All of the garage lights take about an hour to reach full brightness when the temperature dips to zero or lower. Going out to grab that wrench on a cold dark evening is a pain here as well. When it's warm you need sun glasses in the shop.

It's less about going green and more about saving green. I hear often about people that have had problems with CFL's. If they didn't last or caused noise I wouldn't have them. I guess I'm just lucky.

[k4kyv]

CFLs.......I use them everywhere, even in the outside the door socket...  10 below... no problem.

Have yet to hear one any where from 0 to 62mhz (but of course I use coax feedline)

They don't bother my reception when I am using an outdoor antenna.  But then sometimes I can't hear my own VFO in spot mode on certain antennae, and have to temporarily switch to another receiving antenna to zero-beat .  But CFL's clearly pollute reception with any kind of indoor antenna in the same room.  That includes my shielded rotatable 160m loop and any portable AM or shortwave receiver with whip antenna.

I am  not sold on LED's either.  I gave up on LED flashlights after my third one started having LED's to go dark one by one, on the second or in one case, the original set of batteries.

And I tried halogen incandescent lamps.  They are supposed to give off more light than regular bulbs, but I found them to run extremely hot and not last as long.  When one would crap out, I would find cracks in the glass envelope.  I don't know if that was a result of the failure, or if it was the cause.

[WB3JOK]

Charles,

The two porch lights are GE Helical 20 watt interior bulbs. Not meant for outdoor use they say but they are in dry enclosures and under cover so they don't get wet. I expect they take time to warm up but I never look.

oh, I see. I didn't realize you were talking about CFL's left on for prolonged periods. I have also had success with the GE ones as long as they are protected from the weather.

I thought you had found a "magical" CFL that warmed up in a couple of seconds to full brightness in subzero temps!

[AMroo]

Wether they last or not I dont care.

What I dont like are the two established facts that they expose you to a higher dose of UV than you would normally get and they are toxic when broken.

We all know the argument - what if you knew your are biologically predisposed to getting cancer or eye problems etc. etc. would you want to sit with one of these in a desk lamp on your face- how do you know your not predisposed to getting such complications?

Another one that they have caused QRM problems.

[Opcom]

you got me wondering now about the UV, how much it really is. It was right there plain to see in the spectrum. I've been told plastic like lexan blocks UV, and there are theatrical gel materials that can do the same, but we should not have to spend $ to re-engineer the blasted things. For fun I looked at the CRT and the blue there is roughly 430 to 455nM. no line at 405 like the CFL. There may be shorter waves that can't be seen by eye.

Bear, can you get or capture decent wide band images from your spectrometer? Mine is a cheap $40 one and my camera is narrower than the eye.