CFL bulbs
Have three of them in front of the outside of my house on a hard wired timer. Been there for a couple of years. Today I noticed that when they were off two of them were flickering a little. One more t...
Forum Discussion
Gdetrailer wrote:NinerBikes wrote:
A CFL has an anode, and a cathode and usually a starter choke ballast.
How they work
Porcelain lamp fixture for a lightbulb, be it CFL or argon gas and tungsten white hot heated element.
There is no green wire "ground" for the fixture, hence no ground for the light bulb.
End of debate. Also agreed, a Honda generator, or any other generator has no "Ground" or "earth" Connection, unless you want to pound a Ufer ground rod into the ground and tie it in to the ground wire, although it is perfectly unnecessary.
It is necessary when you are tied into the electrical grid, as the source of electricity, usually a huge generator, is then tied into ground also to provide a short circuit path.
That link has very outdated information concerning not only CFLs but most all MODERN DAY fluorescents.
Early CFLs did indeed use a iron core "ballast", I had a few of those..
Modern day CFLs actually use an ELECTRONIC "Ballast" which is a fancy term for switching power supply!
Simply put, modern day CFLS have a built in switching powersupply which is very simular to say your PC power supply but instead of 3, 5, 12V DC they have several HUNDRED VOLTS..
Modern day CFLs actually can be run on DC provided you have 50-70V DC!
Modern day fluorescent fixtures no longer use the old iron ballasts either, instead once again they now use switching power power supplies which deliver several hundred volts..
If you don't believe me, go to home depot and take a good look at replacement ballasts.. You will find only electronic versions due to efficiency regulations..
No need to believe or disbelieve, I'm a general contractor, you are correct, almost all ballasts now are electronic, the electrical code for energy efficiency is a royal PIA for me and clients nowadays, staying current and up with it.
I may be one of the few that have met SCVJeff in person and seen his rig and his work. One word... respect, with anything he does that involves electromagnetic energy, in all it's forms.
There's a fair amount of highly technical guys around here, read enough and you'll know who's EE rated and who still needs to be qualified. I don't have my EE, so I shut up if it's over my head.
