In recent years we
have seen a definite trend for compact fluorescent lamps to shrink in
size, having now reached the point where they actually CAN fit into
fittings designed for incandescent lamps without sticking out the
top. The last two table lamps in the sitting room here only
today finally managed to ditch the 60W incandescent lamps in favour of
11W Philips Genie lamps. These two had been stuck for a while
as they have very shallow shades, and only now had I managed to find
lamps that small at a good price. However...not all CFLs are
small...at the other end of the scale some manufacturers have been
creating monsters...like this 85W beast. At not very far off
a foot in length and roughly three and a half inches in diameter - this
sucker is NOT going to fit in your average bedside table lamp...That
however really is not what it was designed for.
This lamp is an interesting bit of engineering, where the designers
seem to have decided to throw the idea of shrinking a lamp to the size
of a pinhead out of the window, and instead aimed to get as much light
as possible out of something that you can still plug into a normal
lamp holder without needing a crane to hoist it into position.
In this respect they have succeeded...but man this thing's huge...the
BASE is bigger than a normal PS60 lamp! You're going to need
a very large shade for this one.
Technologically speaking, it's nothing hugely special - though the
figures tend to make you think more of high output linear fluorescent
lamps than compact ones. This similarity isn't really out of
place either, with the tube itself being a relatively massive 1400mm
(4.6 feet) in length. One of the interesting features about
this particular lamp is that green ring you can see on the
base This is actually addressing one of the main problems
faced by most spiral type compact fluorescents. When these
lamps are operated in a cap-up orientation, convection currents inside
the spiral lead to a huge amount of heat being drawn up to the centre
of the base, obviously with a lamp of this high a wattage, this problem
would be especially prevalent. What that green ring is
however, is a vented component which effectively provides "Thermal
isolation" from the top cover of the base assembly itself.
While the top surface of the base does get bombarded by these
convection currents (as the yellowing of the plastic after nearly two
years of use shows), the ballast compartment in the base can remain
(relatively) cool. All I can say is that it seems to
work! This lamp's been in daily use in the kitchen in this
house since it was bought in February 2004, and it's still going strong.
You may recall that I said earlier that this thing probably wouldn't
fit in your bedside light...this is probably a good thing. I
for one, certainly would not want to have my eyes open if I switched
this thing on in the middle of the night. The 10W PL-C in my
bedside light's bad enough...but this thing....ouch! The
output really is very, very impressive. I don't know whether
I quite believe the manufacturer's claim of it being equivalent to 425W
of incandescent light, but at the same time, it only appears to consume
65W of power rather than 85W...so all of the figures seem to be a
little shaky. As I said, I'm not sure if their claims are
right...but I can categorically say that it IS brighter than a 200W
incandescent lamp, by quite a margin. The 150W one we used to
use in the kitchen (and generally had to replace on a monthly basis)
really seems like a candle in comparison. It's a well behaved
lamp too, without messing around flickering or buzzing loudly or doing
anything annoying like that. Warm up is fast too, even from
sub-freezing temperatures.
Obviously, it isn't a lamp for all uses. It's huge size
preclude it from a lot of locations from the word go, as there are very
few shades you're likely to see that it'll easily fit in.
However, I can see that a couple of these would transform your
previously dull and shadowy garage into a place where you can actually
work after dark. Our kitchen was utterly transformed by the
use of this lamp - leading us to actually abandon the previous plans to
add linear fluorescent lamps under the cupboards. Which makes
it suddenly seem an awful lot cheaper. Nearly £20 for a
single compact fluorescent lamp initially sounds like a lot - but
putting it in perspective like that, where at least four extra fixtures
were going to be bought - it doesn't sound quite so bad any more!
My only real gripes with this lamp are that it uses an instant start
ballast - in a lamp costing this much I'd really rather see a ballast
which would pre-heat the lamp electrodes, as this can extend the lamp
lifetime quite considerably, especially if it is switched
frequently. The second one is really nit-picking; and that is
that the plastic the case is made of is rather prone to yellowing as
evidenced in the photographs below. This really is not an
issue, and does not affect the operation of the lamp in the slightest -
but it makes it look a bit of a mess.
I have heard rumours that a 125W version of this lamp also exists,
though I have never actually seen one. If you know somewhere
where these are sold, or have ever seen one, please let me
know. Will certainly be adding one to the collection if I see
it. |