[RFI] Cree LED Light Bulb

[Dale J.]

I've had several modern day CFL's fail.  Just the other day one in the basement which is on 24/7 went out.  I thought I had a bad socket as I unscrewed the light and back in again, it started up on for a few seconds but then went out.  I changed out the CFL with another CFL, same size and it's still working.  The CFL's that have failed have signs of overheating even though I have them in well vented fixtures.  A couple of the failed CFL's developed loose glass, but weren't cracked just loose.  I also dissected one too, curious what's inside.  I found an IC, some resistors and capacitors mounted on a PWB.  I have not noticed any RF noise from any CFL and we have quite a few around the house.  I must say it takes a couple years for them to fail and several are on all the time.  I have two in the shack in Luxo bench lamps, well vented at the top.  They are inexpensive and I'll continue to use CFL's until something better comes along for about the same cost.  

If I recall, the mfg of one brand of CFL stated that they should be used in an upright configuration, I take it to mean the heat will rise away from the electronic pod below the glass. Maybe makes sense, but in my use most of the CFL's are upside down so any heat generated from the glass will go into and around the electronic pod base, perhaps shortening it's life, just a guess.  

Dale, k9vuj



On 11, Aug 2014, at 13:38, Jim Brown <jim at audiosystemsgroup.com> wrote:

> On 8/11/2014 11:05 AM, Charlie Gallo wrote:
>> Again,  you're  looking  at  1.17  watts of light, and therefore 12.83
>> watts as heat
> 
> All good analysis, quite sufficient as far as fire hazard is concerned. But there's another issue -- that 13W of heat has to go somewhere, and depending on the enclosure, some or all may stay within the enclosure and raises its ambient. That may, or may not, allow sufficient conduction of heat away from the circuitry to prevent destructive failure of the lamp and/or its circuitry.
> 
> Something like 5-6 years ago, I bought a couple of Edison-base multi-LED lamp assemblies from a hamfest vendor, and stuck them in a simple reflector fixture (one-third spherical, thus 2/3 open) as lighting in the shack. Within a month or two, both lamp assemblies had developed cracks in the glass.
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
> 
> 
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