Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) are increasingly popular as a way to save some energy. Eventually, they do burn out. Some seem to burn out annoyingly quickly :-( Even if not burnt out, CFL bulbs have become very cheap, especially if you live in an area where they get subsidized by your local electrical utility.
Are there any hobbyist usable electronics parts inside a CFL? How do they work, anyway? And when they burn out, why have they burnt out?
Let's take some apart and see!
(This Photo by PiccoloNamek from Wikipedia. Hopefully this is sufficient to meet the requirements of the license; I didn't have my lawyer review the Gnu Free Documentation License)
Are there any hobbyist usable electronics parts inside a CFL? How do they work, anyway? And when they burn out, why have they burnt out?
Let's take some apart and see!
(This Photo by PiccoloNamek from Wikipedia. Hopefully this is sufficient to meet the requirements of the license; I didn't have my lawyer review the Gnu Free Documentation License)
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Signing UpStep 1: Take it Apart 1: cut a pry-slot
Most of the CFLs I've seen have a seam where they can be pried apart without too much difficulty. Sometimes the seam is glued or "welded" together, other times it's just where two pieces have been "press fit" together.
Unfortunately, even if only press-fit, the two pieces are usually too securely attached to just pry them apart with your hands, if only because one of the halves has only the glass tube to get a grip on. Sometimes the joining seam is loose and/or large enough to fit in a flat-blade screwdriver, but it is easiest (assuming you don't want to re-use the bulb casing) to cut a shallow slot at the seam with a hacksaw. Just hold the housing securely (in a small vise as pictured, or not), and saw a slot just barely through the casing - about 4mm.
Unfortunately, even if only press-fit, the two pieces are usually too securely attached to just pry them apart with your hands, if only because one of the halves has only the glass tube to get a grip on. Sometimes the joining seam is loose and/or large enough to fit in a flat-blade screwdriver, but it is easiest (assuming you don't want to re-use the bulb casing) to cut a shallow slot at the seam with a hacksaw. Just hold the housing securely (in a small vise as pictured, or not), and saw a slot just barely through the casing - about 4mm.
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When I opened it, all I got was a capacitor wired to a glass glow bulb starter.
Is the starter useful for anything other than lightbulbs?
Just kidding ;D
Higher-wattage bulbs have a (somewhat) greater chance that their transistors would have survived the lamp failing; I have some nice E13007 transistors, and some really nice MOSFETS of which I can't remember the part number right now.
Kudos to WestFW for a nice -ible on CFL parts.
On the divergent thread:
Tritium is fine IF it's encased safely. Watches with tritium hands have been designed to keep it inside. Regulatory agencies are not always driven by science but often are driven by public outcry and ignorance. Ask a n* physicist who works with those things and they'll tell you the gas lantern mantles and watch hands scare is pretty much just that, scare tactics. Moral- don't grind up any of those things and eat them.
What a great spelunking tool to bring on the tour, a watch face that won't stop glowing no matter how dark it is or how long it has been in the dark!
Why don't we play a bit safe here?
Take a look at "The crippled hand of a Minamata disease victim":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease
Even if it is not hugely risky there are a lot safer things to play with it would seem to me.
Typical mercury content of CFL = 4mg.
Typical mercury content of amalgam tooth filling = 100mg
You take One of these surplus ccfl inverters, and you can JUST barely insert it into that particular spiral. After which you have a 5V CFL; you just have to remember not to put it in a 110V socket! (and having the inverter visible reminds you.)
All lighting devices use glass of a higher quality than plate glass, if using glass at all. Plate glass, such as that used in older home windows, breaks into shards of any size, due to it being extremely brittle. Modern glass has some "give" to it, which largely reduces breakage to severance with minimal particulation and slivering. While thinly-blown glass, such as that for incandescents or long fluorescent tubes can still sliver, CFD's are not made that thin.
The mercury level is far less than a milligram, and it is only used for the gas it expels, to aid in starting the tube by lowering it's initial breakdown voltage. Mercury is dangerous, but the levels from a CFL, even if every trace is ingested fully, will not kill you outright. The levels of mercury are made as low as possible, down to as little a 20 micrograms, and are often deposited on the heater elements.
To further the argument, the 99.998% pure mercury required in manufacture of CFL's is so expensive, it is natural that they don't want to waste it. It is about $1 for 5.3 grams of mercury that pure, per my last query, but that is still expensive, especially when you consider how hard it is to keep it that pure. You have well over 100,000,000% more mercury to fear if you break a traditional glass thermometer.
Again, I don't advocate breaking CFL's on purpose for any reason, as some elements will stay aloft in the air for many years before eventually being settled, but mercury, despite my warnings which may have spurned a small paranoic dispute, is not the largest danger of CFL's....The biggest danger from any CFL is electric shock, from being stupid enough to touch the still-active starter-circuit after one has been broken but is still "live".
So far as the argument about what is a "more attractive light", it is purely subjective. In a common light shade, most of the blue light is eliminated or deferred to a different spectrum. If anyone finds the blue light output of a CFD too blue for them, it is either because they are completely exposed/not diffused correctly, or they are having a vitamin deficiency making them more sensitive to the wrong light spectrum. My eyes have unprecedented vision for my age, and I can see how some think the light is a blue-grey.....but also remember, when it comes to sheer intensity, a CFD's light travels better through air than a filament-bulb's does.
For outside lighting at night, my multiplex owner previously used incandescent spotlights. The visibility quickly faded by distance, and hardly lit the lot well enough...I convinced him to switch to CFD's, and not only is the lot clearly lit, it lights the driveway to the street as well as it does from 10 feet away. Furthermore, CFD's far improve the visibility of a CCTV system overall.
An incandescent light degrades almost statically by distance; the blue level in CFD's carries that light to a range, until it finally degrades quickly at the limit of that range. While the light level from an incandescent will fade as you become more distant, much like a flame (which is also an incandescent light form), a light generated from an ionic discharge (such as fluorescent) will carry for a greater distance, but will lose intensity rapidly once the ideal range is exceeded.
Sure, you can use a primitive light for that warm effect, or if you are going to use the heat dispersed by the lamp at the same time, such as lighted incubation or keeping hot food fresh, it does have it's place as the best form of an "electric fire" as you can get, but when you need light when you shouldn't be picky, such as outside/bathroom/closet/hallway/security/background light, a CFD or LED is not only environmentally responsible and intelligent, but less costly in terms of cost-of-operation and maintenance.
The weakness of incandescents is obvious if you've thought that your high-beams in your car would give you greater visibility in a deep fog while driving. The observant would realize that this not only ruins their visibility, but is detrimental to the visibility of others in range coming in the other direction. Contrary to initial sense as it may sound in such a situation, turning your headlights off can actually increase your visibility in some foggy situations. (Don't be a retard and think that turning your headlights off means turning your lights off altogether, that is what the "parking lights" position is for on your car's headlighting switch is for...It's a three-position switch stupid....yes, if you paid more attention, you would realize that there is turning on the marker lights, and then the headlights. If you didn't already know this, get more aquainted with your car before you drive again, for the sake of the lives of others).
Incandescents are far inferior to CFD's, and LED's produce nearly the same light spectrum by a visual observation, but proper diffusion of the light makes a big difference in how you see it. With paper shrouds, less blue light is blocked. With cloth shrouds, more blue is blocked, and more red light comes through, making the similar visual light emitted from an incandescent bulb. CFD's rely on the diffusion of phosphors, LED's rely on them to produce the light in the first place. To see an undiffused fluorescent reaction is nearly blinding, due to it's sheer intensity of nearly pure white light. Undiffused fluorescents have often been used for Xerox-style copier machines, because the diffusion blocks the UV component needed for the toner to react with the substrate.
Love CFL's or leave them, but at least be smart enough to use them where only sheer light is necessary. To use incandescents for outside lighting is abject retardation for the sake of aesthetics. Get smart and learn where CFD's are sufficient for you, or you only add to the increasing cost of power in the country, as well as your republican vote has, if you were so mistaken in your beliefs for the past 7+ years.....
1) CFLs are not dim.
They're rated as they compare to incandescents. So if the manufacturer isn't blowing smoke up your ass, their "60W" CFL puts out the same candlepower as a 60W incandescent. And the "60W" CFL actually is only drawing about 23W to make the same amount of light.
So if for some odd reason a CFL seems dimmer than an equivalent incandescent to you, then get a more powerful CFL! You'll still be using less than half the electricity the incandescent would!
3) You can buy "warm" CFLs which are yellowish instead of bluish.
Not that I really expect you to read, understand and accept what I'm saying. It sounds like you've already made up your mind about CFLs and no amount of facts will change it.
That's your opinion and totally subjective.
"the warm tone bulbs are rubbish and produce only a slightly less blue/grey light"
Again, that's your opinion. What bulbs did you test, anyway? If you're buying bargain-basement ones, then it's no wonder you're less than impressed.
"estimated bulb life on these bulbs is wildly overestimated"
No, it isn't.
"added to which they are filled with mercury which IS extremely toxic even in tiny doses and like lead can accumulate in the body"
They're not filled with mercury. They have less than 10 milligrams. And the human body does eliminate lead and mercury.
"LED bulbs are infinately superior and more versatile"
You might want to learn the big words before you use them.
LED bulbs will probably take over soon, but for now, they're still to expensive to be competitive with CFL.
Well no kidding. Attractiveness is entirely subjective. Nobody being objective would say incandescent lighting is more attractive than CFL either.
"In my capacity as buyer for an enviromental charity I have tested just about every CFL and LED bulb on the market and the almost unanimous opinion from the data collected is that CFL bulbs produce an unattractive light"
Every bulb on the market. Yeah, right. If you're going to blow smoke up my ass, at least try to be believable.
"I didn't suggest that CFL's were full of liquid mercury and I am completely aware of the safe human levels of mercury
the human can eliminate SOME mercury"
Apology accepted.
"LED bulbs are already competitive and use less power than CFL's"
Okay, I'll take your word for it. I hadn't checked into LED bulbs in a couple of months.
Blanket statements on culture aside, LED cluster light bulbs are king in power use, life of product and have much lower ratio of toxic components when disposed of. The rechargeable batteries will be more viable once the new nano silicon wires are integrated in to the lithium ion battery production process. This will make your 8 hour laptop battery a 24 hour laptop battery. The battery does not degrade as the wires are to small to be pulverized by the current. This is an issue in the current design. Nicads die do to crystallization. There are a few instructables on using DC current to blasts to reclaim old NiCads. However again the new lithium ion tech is where it's at.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071219103105.htm
http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/mercury.html
What minute amounts of mercury that are released are negligible, but the molecular bond with the mercury is stronger than that which can be easily broken by the heat or chemistry of the mouth. An active person will likely urinate about 45% of it out over time, due to the profoundly direct exposure to the bloodstream and being snapped up rather quickly by the kidneys.
http://www.epa.gov/mercury/about.htm
http://www.epa.gov/mercury/regs.htm
http://publicaccess.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/publicaccess.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php?p_lva=&p_li=&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_page=1&p_cv=&p_pv=1.233&p_prods=233&p_cats=&p_hidden_prods=&prod_lvl1=233&p_search_text=&p_new_search=1
Exposure to mercury. Mercury in the air eventually settles into water or onto land where it can be washed into water. Once deposited, certain microorganisms can change it into methylmercury, a highly toxic form that builds up in fish, shellfish and animals that eat fish. Fish and shellfish are the main sources of methylmercury exposure to humans. Methylmercury builds up more in some types of fish and shellfish than others.The levels of methylmercury in fish and shellfish depend on what they eat, how long they live and how high they are in the food chain.
EPA works with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and with states and tribes to issue advice to women who may become pregnant, pregnant women, nursing mothers and parents of young children about how often they should eat certain types of commercially-caught fish and shellfish. Fish advisories are also issued for men, women, and children of all ages when appropriate. In addition, EPA releases an annual summary of information on locally-issued fish advisories and safe-eating guidelines to the public. Fish is a beneficial part of the diet, so EPA & FDA encourage people to continue to eat fish that are low in methylmercury. More information
Another less common exposure to mercury that can be a concern is breathing mercury vapor. These exposures can occur when elemental mercury or products that contain elemental mercury break and release mercury to the air, particularly in warm or poorly-ventilated indoor spaces. More information
Health effects of mercury. Mercury exposure at high levels can harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs, and immune system of people of all ages. Research shows that most people's fish consumption does not cause a health concern. However, it has been demonstrated that high levels of methylmercury in the bloodstream of unborn babies and young children may harm the developing nervous system, making the child less able to think and learn. More information
Nice Instructable, can we get a picture of the CFL being powered from 5v?