Notes: |
These days, cheap CFLs are
getting progressively easier to find, in the common wattages anyway (eg
11W - 20W). However, it seems that the higher wattages have
eluded this market for the most part - not really surprising when you
take into account what a small portion of the overall market they make
up.
However,
there are some out there if you dig around, this 30W example I
discovered totally at random in a discount store when I was looking
for, of all things, a box of paperclips!
Technically
speaking, there isn't anything particularly special about this lamp,
it's a very ordinary compact fluorescent lamp, featuring an instant
start electronic ballast, and colour 827 phosphor.
The 8000 hour quoted lifetime sounds somewhat on the long side
for a budget lamp, but this lamp does seem to run quite cool - a good thing, as
what generally kills CFLs prematurely is overheating of ballast components.
Regular switching of course would not help - but generally the problem with
cheaper lamps is that the tube itself will last longer than the ballast. A
far cry from the first magnetically ballasted lamps where the ballast would last
effectively indefinitely, hence the evolution of lamps with a separate
ballast/tube assembly. |