[RFI] The "new" light bulbs; it is accurate.

[K8RI]

On 3/8/2011 12:57 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> On 3/8/2011 9:16 AM, Warrenwolff wrote:
>> Most of you folks know that I have real problems
>> with these (new?) CFL light bulbs.  I used a bunch
>> of them at the San Bernardino house to find high
>> failure rates.   I was just too busy to take them
>> back for warranty replacement.  Shame on me!
> Yes, it's important to take back defective crap and force vendors to eat
> the loss.
>
> On the other hand, I've had far better experience than you. When I moved
> to Santa Cruz, CA from Chicago in 2006 and experienced sky-high
> California electricity rates (more than double what I paid in Chicago),

Early on they were expensive and we had some with short lives, but over 
the last year or two the prices have come down and they appear to be 
lasting longer than the incandescents did.  We've replaced all of the 
screw in incandescent lights with CFLs.  No RFI and no noticed RFI when 
one failed.  That could change with the next one I purchase.  Who knows 
what the future will bring?

We have a minimum of 24 with 4 of those being 200 to 250 equivalents out 
in the garage where it gets Cold! Even then it only takes a minute or 
two for them to come up to full brilliance at zero F. From mid spring to 
mid fall they are pretty much instant on. OTOH their lives are notably 
shorter than the others.

CFLs are not for where they will be turned on and off a lot.  IOW if you 
leave the room and are coming back with in 10 minutes, leave it/them 
on.  A lot of short term cycling is likely to drastically reduce their 
lives, just as it does with regular fluorescents.

Keeping the short term cycling to a minimum could/might keep the RFI 
down as well

I do get the occasional "buzz" when a conventional 8' 75W tube fails out 
in the shop. OTOH because of the flickering it'd get changed anyway.  A 
failed ballast can get downright noisy. BTW  I have 22 8' tubes and 11 
ballasts out there.

73

Roger (K8RI)
> I replaced at least a dozen incandescent bulbs with CFLs.  So far
> (nearly five years), I have not had a single failure, nor have I
> experienced any RF noise. I haven't done the arithmetic, but rough
> estimates suggest that the savings on my PG&E bill are pretty close to
> off-setting what I paid for the bulbs.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
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