CFL lights and why I dumped them.

I never bothered to switch all my lights in the house to the CFL type. The two main ones (beside my bed and at the computer) I made sure I had as CFL. I use them a lot and so there on quite a bit.

So I was watching Global TV, and they did this whole thing on the CFL lights, and a serious problem.

On the right, play the video. Should come up with the story "Rays of Rash".
http://www.globaltv.com/globaltv/globalshows/16x9/index.html

If you suffer from migraine headaches, this could be a reason why. I noticed I was getting more headaches (not migraines mind you) and didn't really know why. Switched back the old bulbs and have felt better.
If you tend to have them on a lot and sit fairly close, just be careful. Just because it maybe good for the environment, it may not be good for you.

 

yeah.. the migraine is a problem.

 

Led.

 

Plus they are full of toxic chemicals (mercury) and must be disposed of "properly". What to do if one breaks? Don't touch, don't breathe, bag up separately, seal tightly, label as toxic waste... What about that makes them good for the environment? Giving you headaches too? What about that is good for YOUR environment? And the kicker is they are far more expensive too. Actually, those lightbulbs are nothing but a environmentally destructive farce.

 

I can't find the misinformation your quoting from but to dispel the common CFL myths.

1-Flickering

As necessitated by there size CFL's are electronically ballasted and unless they have been specifically designed to piss you off by some nefarious engineer (LPMV lamps get more efficient when driven above 10khz, higher frequencies = smaller inductors = lower costs) will "flicker" faster than the time taken for the phosphors to re-emit the light, thus for all intents and purposes they do not flicker at all. They do not strobe in the khz range as some scaremongers will have you believe.

Magnetically ballasted LPMV (normal fluorescent) lamps will strobe at twice the supply frequency (100 or 120 hz) this does not effect CFL's or electronically ballasted LPMV's

2- "buzzing"

CFL's may buzz at an assortment of frequencies, most notably supply frequency (50 / 60 hz 100 / 120 hz) or whatever frequency the ballast is pumping into the bulb (10khz+) this is not some magic subsonic noise, its the same sort of noises you'll get from any other item of equipment that uses inductors, you can either hear it or you don't, and with the tiny size of CFLs it'll be dam quiet

3- Magicnetic death fields

CFL's do contain inductors but the currents involved are tiny (100 mA range) and thus any magnetic fields are also tiny. Remember also that the strength of a magnetic field decreases proportionally to the CUBE of the distance, so they are tiny in that respect also. Id be more worried about magnetic fields from things like your tv (10x the current, larger inductors) your car (high currents all round) substations, the earth, the sun etc


Mercury is a more valid point but they amount contained is tiny and by the end of the life of the bulb most of it has been absorbed into the phosphors.

If I wanted to moans about CFL's i would be complaining that the cheap ones have piss poor power factors (as low as 0.3) and that a large proportion of bulb failures is due to overheated ballasts. Also they are shit as a rule, but they won't kill you with death rays like the man on the news sez.

 

leds

be aware that some systems use a pulse width modulation type of supply to them

that is they actually turn off very quickly, rather than turn on continuously, you don't conciously see the flicker.

you need to find out exactly how the led is being driven to know if it is going to flicker at a high frequency.

 

I am a proponent for the cfls, and I have been experiencing headaches since I switched my house out years ago. I am going to try the leds and I will post a conclusion.