[aprssig] TAPR Dayton Solar Talk

[Jim Sanford]

All:

I, too have suffered the premature failures.  So many, that on top of 
the onerous mercury disposal rules, I'm over CFLs -- bought a lifetime 
supply of incandescents while I could, and slowly converting to LEDs   
Adding insult to injury, the CFLs are very RF noisy -- so noisy, that my 
X-10 remote controls can turn one on, but never off, not matter how much 
filtering I put in upstream of the noise generator.

/IEEE Spectrum/ recently ran an article about a teardown, which explains 
why the CFL's fail prematurely -- to keep manufacturing costs down in 
China, the electronics in the base are hand soldered (badly, to be kind, 
the pictured solder joints were terrible!).  So, when the get hot, 
solder joint fails . . . and another few grams of mercury head to the 
land fill, err. recycling stream.

Also confirmed in a separate IEE article what I had long suspected -- 
LEDs are expensive because of the thermal managment issues -- 15 watts 
dissipated over a few square cm is a LOT of BTU/hr-ft-squared!  Still, 
volume /appriaching/ the point where prices will drop, then like all 
things semiconductor, the price drop will be precipitous.  Until then, 
incandescents here we come . . ..

/Spectrum/ tends to shill for all things "green", so I'm a bit skeptical 
of their predictions. /Still/, their data and my own experience suggests 
that the LED price /will /come down, only question is how soon and how fast.

Good luck to all,
73,
Jim
wb4gcs at amsat.org


On 5/30/2011 9:18 PM, Bob Bruninga wrote:
> Interesting.  About 1/3rd of mine are mounted upside down in ceiling fixtures, and I have not noticed any failures...
>
> Bob, WB4APR
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
>>     The only way one can get the many thousand hour life from a CFL is to
>> mount them base down. When the base is up the heat from the bulb rises into
>> the power supply in the base and is what kills them.  Unfortunately, few
>> ceiling fixtures allow one to mount the bulb base down or have sufficient
>> ventilation for the base to cool in any configuration.
>>
>>     On the other hand, I have table lamps with CFL' s with the base down
>> that have lasted several years.
>>
>>     YMMV.
>>
>> 73,
>> Al, K9SI
>>
>>
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