[geeks] full-spectrum compact flourescents found

[Bill Bradford]

On Fri, Jul 05, 2002 at 07:34:50PM -0400, Dave McGuire wrote:
>   This is per-powerup, right?  

Not as bad after the first time.  

> Is this something you get used to, or is it annoying?

You get used to it, and its not as bad after the first initial
"burn-in"; in fact, some people wouldnt notice it at all. 

When you first power them on, they might hit, say, 75% of
maximum brightness, and gradualaly warm up to the rest after
a couple minutes.

Best explained here:

http://www.yarchive.net/electr/fluorescents.html

"> All this playing around with flourescents has cued me to a
 > characteristic I never noticed before - they put out at least
 > twice as much light after a minute or two as when first turned
 > on.
 
 Yup.  The light contains a mix of argon and mercury.  When first
 lit, the argon makes some UV light which makes the phosphor glow. 
 But the UV production pales compared to what the mercury puts out. 
 The mercury has to warm before it vaporizes and starts
 contributing.  Once the mercury becomes warm, the light output
 increases tremendously. "

*all* flourescent lights do this...   The only "difference" between
normal flourescent tubing and CFLs is that CFLs have a built-in
ballast (in the screw-in base) and are coiled with small tubing to
the same form-factor as normal incandescent lightbulbs.

(BTW, yarchive KICKS ASS.  Norman Yavin has points in my book..)

Bill

-- 
Bill Bradford     
mrbill at mrbill.net 
Austin, TX