Posted by Barry on June 24, 2006, 9:37 pm
Thought this group might have some useful info. I have replaced the 17 65w
bulbs in our basement exercise room with Compact Flourescent. They are the
Indoor flood type bulbs. I love how bright they are and use little energy.
Unfortunately, I bought them in cheap packages of 5 from Home Depot. The
problem is that they take about 2 minutes to warm up and are very dim when
first turned on. Does anyone have any info on good quality CF indoor floods
that turn on instantly that I could use to replace them? I often go into
the room for just a moment and it is frustrating how dark the room is.
Thanks
Barry
Posted by beemerwacker on June 24, 2006, 11:22 pm
Barry wrote:
> Thought this group might have some useful info. I have replaced the 17 65w
> bulbs in our basement exercise room with Compact Flourescent. They are the
> Indoor flood type bulbs. I love how bright they are and use little energy.
> Unfortunately, I bought them in cheap packages of 5 from Home Depot. The
> problem is that they take about 2 minutes to warm up and are very dim when
> first turned on. Does anyone have any info on good quality CF indoor floods
> that turn on instantly that I could use to replace them? I often go into
> the room for just a moment and it is frustrating how dark the room is.
> Thanks
> Barry
I bought a giant 250 watt CF GE replacement for the kitchen (cost me
$12) and have the same problem; damn the thing is bright after 5
minutes.
Posted by Eeyore on June 25, 2006, 12:41 am
Barry wrote:
> Thought this group might have some useful info. I have replaced the 17 65w
> bulbs in our basement exercise room with Compact Flourescent. They are the
> Indoor flood type bulbs. I love how bright they are and use little energy.
> Unfortunately, I bought them in cheap packages of 5 from Home Depot. The
> problem is that they take about 2 minutes to warm up and are very dim when
> first turned on. Does anyone have any info on good quality CF indoor floods
> that turn on instantly that I could use to replace them? I often go into
> the room for just a moment and it is frustrating how dark the room is.
I bought some a while back that came on bright instantly. I don't know how it's
done though. Seems like you have to shop around to find them.
Graham
Posted by Neon John on June 25, 2006, 12:41 am
On Sat, 24 Jun 2006 21:37:57 -0400, "Barry"
>Thought this group might have some useful info. I have replaced the 17 65w
>bulbs in our basement exercise room with Compact Flourescent. They are the
>Indoor flood type bulbs. I love how bright they are and use little energy.
>Unfortunately, I bought them in cheap packages of 5 from Home Depot. The
>problem is that they take about 2 minutes to warm up and are very dim when
>first turned on. Does anyone have any info on good quality CF indoor floods
>that turn on instantly that I could use to replace them? I often go into
>the room for just a moment and it is frustrating how dark the room is.
Earlier in the year I did a wholesale CF replacement campaign in my
place using the cheap 8 lamp packs from Sam's Club. Essentially the
same lamps, best I can tell. Though dimmer than after warmup, the
initial brightness is more than enough for me. Therefore I suspect
that a goodly part of your problem is perception and therefore there
won't be any replacement that will seem any better.
The initial dimness is pretty much the nature of the beast,
exacerbated by the mecuriphobia that is rampant today which has led
the manufacturers to absolutely minimize the amount of mercury
incorporated in each tube. The mercury is what emits the UV that
stimulates the phosphor to make the visible light.
Two effects here. One, the rare earth phosphors used in these lamps
become more efficient as they heat. That is one source of the initial
dimness. The other effect is the mercury vapor pressure in the tube.
Owing to the scarcity of mercury in the tube, at room temperature
there is little mercury vapor present. The phosphors absorb some and
the mercury release device absorbs some more.
Upon initial ignition, only the argon (and sometimes neon, krypton and
even xenon) fill gas emits light and little of that is of the proper
wavelength to stimulate the phosphors. Heat fairly rapidly builds in
the mercury emitters attached to the cathodes and the merc vapor
pressure builds. At the same time, mercury absorbed by the phosphors
is released as they warm up. The result is the initial dim emission,
rapidly followed by full output.
The CF format IS so efficient in major part because of the optimized
phosphors and the fairly high temperature (compared to regular
fluorescents) that the tube runs at.
If you really can't get use to the slight delay in full brightness
then you only have a few options:
* conventional fluorescents. Some T9 format tubes, which are more
efficient than the older, larger ones, are available with the warm,
"incandescent" spectrum rare earth phosphors like most CFLs now use.
* toss in an incandescent lamp every so often. That'll provide some
additional amount of light instantly.
* Look at the latest generation of CFLs, the cold cathode CFL or CCFL.
This type of lamp uses a smaller tube and an unheated electrode. The
initial brightness is about the same but the warmup is extremely
rapid, 10-15 seconds, in that range. These are limited to low wattage
units at present. I haven't seen this for sale at retail but they are
available from on-line sellers.
---
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
Cleveland, Occupied TN
Don't let your schooling interfere with your education-Mark Twain
Posted by walter_lee on June 25, 2006, 9:48 am
Barry wrote:
> Thought this group might have some useful info. I have replaced the 17 65w
> bulbs in our basement exercise room with Compact Flourescent. They are the
> Indoor flood type bulbs. I love how bright they are and use little energy.
> Unfortunately, I bought them in cheap packages of 5 from Home Depot. The
> problem is that they take about 2 minutes to warm up and are very dim when
> first turned on. Does anyone have any info on good quality CF indoor floods
> that turn on instantly that I could use to replace them? I often go into
> the room for just a moment and it is frustrating how dark the room is.
> Thanks
> Barry
Have you ever thought about using the white light LED-based
light fixtures? They are more efficent than incandescents
and very energy efficent. While still quite rare ( I normally
only see LEDs used for portable flash lights and lanterns )
at the retail level you can get them via the internet. I
saw them used in the solar decathalon prototype home
exhibition in Washington DC. The LED based light
fixtures has the advantage over CFL in that they
operate like incandescents - in they light up at full
power immediately. The ones I saw up close were low
current track lights which drew its power from two
overhanging parallel wires/tracks .
here an example of a LED bulb replacements ...
At 15 to 40 a bulb, they are pricey option compared
to regular CFLs which are a better bang for the buck
Still if you need immediately light and have
the funds you might want to mix a few LED
bulbs with your CFLs....
http://store.advancedmart.com/11acsc18ledl.html
http://blackenergy.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info¤cy=USD&products_id 12
http://www.smarthome.com/97314a.html
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> bulbs in our basement exercise room with Compact Flourescent. They are the
> Indoor flood type bulbs. I love how bright they are and use little energy.
> Unfortunately, I bought them in cheap packages of 5 from Home Depot. The
> problem is that they take about 2 minutes to warm up and are very dim when
> first turned on. Does anyone have any info on good quality CF indoor floods
> that turn on instantly that I could use to replace them? I often go into
> the room for just a moment and it is frustrating how dark the room is.
> Thanks
> Barry