[TowerTalk] CF Bulbs

[Phil Camera]

My experience is as follows:

I've replaced a number a incandescent bulbs in the house and especially in and near the radio shack and have not had a problem.  Those bulbs are the 8 to a pack GE styles from Sams Club.  


Now, I've done the same with the same bulbs on the two outdoor lights with photoeyes.  On older photoeye units, these bulbs just burned out within a week or so (they are specifically not rated for photoeyes or dimmers).  This past summer I replaced these two outdoor fixtures with new that had a different type of photoeye (replacement was due to old fixture starting to look beat up).  I again tried these same CF bulbs and they have lasted for a long time......but

The new problem I experienced is that when these came on and stayed on, RFI wiped out the AM radio (and most likely up into the amateur bands).

I did an internet search and only found CF bulbs specifically rated for use with dimmers (none stated for use with photoeyes but I thought the issues were the same).  I bought a few of these dimmer rated CFs and installed these and no more RFI.  Gone.


So if you are having interference issues with CFs; you may wish to try obtaining dimmer rated CFs and gives those a try.


--
Phil - KB9CRY 
Lockport, IL 
http://nidxa.org/memberWWW/kb9cry_home.htm