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Essay on Compact Fluorescent Lamp
Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Introduction to Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Essay on the History of Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Essay on the Types of Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Essay on the Components of Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Essay on the Advantages of Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Essay on the Disadvantages of Compact Fluorescent Lamp
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Essay # 1. Introduction to Compact Fluorescent Lamp:
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A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), also known as a compact fluorescent light or energy saving light is a type of fluorescent lamp. Many CFLs are designed to replace an incandescent lamp and can fit into most existing light fixtures formerly used for incandescent.
Compared to general service incandescent lamps giving the same amount of visible light, CFLs use less power and have a longer rated life. Like all fluorescent lamps, CFLs contain mercury, which complicates their disposal.
CFLs radiate a different light spectrum from that of incandescent lamps. Improved phosphor formulations have improved the subjective colour of the light emitted by CFLs such that some sources rate the best ‘soft white’ CFLs as subjectively similar in color to standard incandescent lamps.
Essay # 2. History of Compact Fluorescent Lamp:
The parent to the modern fluorescent lamp was invented in the late 1890s by Peter Cooper Hewitt. The Cooper Hewitt lamps were used for photographic studios and industries.
Edmund Germer, Friedrich Meyer, and Hans Spanner then patented a high pressure vapor lamp in 1927. George Inman later teamed with General Electric to create a practical fluorescent lamp, sold in 1938 and patented in 1941. Circular and U-shaped lamps were devised to reduce the length of fluorescent light fixtures. The first fluorescent bulb and fixture were displayed to the general public at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
The spiral tube CFL was invented in 1976 by Edward E. Hammer, an engineer with General Electric, in response to the 1973 oil crisis. The design met its goals.
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In 1980, Philips introduced its model SL, which was a screw-in lamp with integral ballast. The lamp used a folded T4 tube, stable tri-colour phosphors, and a mercury amalgam. This was the first successful screw-in replacement for an incandescent lamp. In 1985 Osram started selling their model EL lamp which was the first CFL to include electronic ballast.
Ellis Yan, a Chinese immigrant to the United States who runs a lighting business in China, decided to improve on the CFL design in the 1990s. Chinese workers bent the glass by hand, but the results were “expensive, clunky and flickered when turned on.” Yan continued his efforts and the business became a success; by 2010, one-fourth of all bulbs sold in the United States were CFLs, with Yan claiming he made over half of those.
Essay # 3. Types of Compact Fluorescent Lamp:
The most important technical advance has been the replacement of electromagnetic ballasts with electronic ballasts; this has removed most of the flickering and slow starting traditionally associated with fluorescent lighting.
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There are two types of Compact Fluorescent Lamps:
i. Integrated, and
ii. Non-integrated lamps.
Integrated lamps combine a tube, an electronic ballast and either an Edison screw or a bayonet fitting in a single unit. These lamps allow consumers to replace incandescent lamps easily with CFLs. Integrated CFLs work well in many standard incandescent light fixtures, reducing the cost of converting to fluorescent.
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Non-integrated CFLs have the ballast permanently installed in the luminaries, and only the lamp bulb is usually changed at its end of life. Since the ballasts are placed in the light fixture they are larger and last longer compared to the integrated ones, and they don’t need to be replaced when the bulb reaches its end-of-life.
Non-integrated CFL housings can be both more expensive and sophisticated. They have two types of tubes- a bi-pin tube designed for conventional ballast, and a quad-pin tube designed for electronic ballast or conventional ballast with an external starter. A bi-pin tube contains an integrated starter which obviates the need for external heating pins but causes incompatibility with electronic ballasts.
Essay # 4. Components of Compact Fluorescent Lamp:
CFLs have two main components- a gas-filled tube (also called bulb or burner) and magnetic or electronic ballast.
Standard shapes of CFL tube are single-turn double helix, double-turn, triple-turn, quad-turn, circular, and butterfly.
Electronic ballasts contain a small circuit board with rectifiers, a filter capacitor and usually two switching transistors connected as a high-frequency resonant series DC to AC inverter. The resulting high frequency, around 40 kHz or higher, is applied to the lamp tube.
Since the resonant converter tends to stabilize lamp current (and light produced) over a range of input voltages, standard CFLs do not respond well in dimming applications and special lamps are required for dimming service. CFLs that flicker when they start have magnetic ballasts; CFLs with electronic ballasts are now much more common.
CFLs are produced for both alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) input. DC CFLs are popular for use in recreational vehicles and off-the-grid housing. CFLs can also be operated with solar powered street lights, using solar panels located on the top or sides of a pole and light fixtures that are specially wired to use the lamps.
Essay # 5. Advantages of Compact Fluorescent Lamp:
The following points make the difference between CFL and incandescent lamps and have the advantages of CFL over incandescent lamps:
(i) Lifespan:
The average rated life of a CFL is between 8 and 15 times that of incandescent. CFLs typically have a rated lifespan of between 6,000 and 15,000 hours, whereas incandescent lamps are usually manufactured to have a lifespan of 750 hours or 1,000 hours.
The lifetime of any lamp depends on many factors including operating voltage, manufacturing defects, exposure to voltage spikes, mechanical shock, frequency of cycling on and off, lamp orientation, and ambient operating temperature, among other factors.
The life of a CFL is significantly shorter if it is turned on and off frequently. In the case of a 5-minute on/off cycle the lifespan of a CFL can be reduced to “close to that of incandescent light bulbs”. The US Energy Star program suggests that fluorescent lamps be left on when leaving a room for less than 15 minutes to mitigate this problem.
CFLs produce less light later in their lives than when they are new. The light output decay is exponential, with the fastest losses being soon after the lamp is first used. By the end of their lives, CFLs can be expected to produce 70-80% of their original light output. The response of the human eye to light is logarithmic (a photographic ‘f-stop’ reduction represents a halving in actual light, but is subjectively quite a small change).
A 20-30% reduction over many thousands of hours represents a change of about half an f-stop. So, presuming the illumination provided by the lamp was ample at the beginning of its life, such a difference will be compensated for by the eyes, for most purposes.
Energy Efficiency of CFL:
For a given light output, CFLs use 20 to 33 percent of the power of equivalent incandescent lamps. Since lighting accounted for approximately 9% of household electricity usage in the United States in 2001, widespread use of CFLs could save as much as 7% of total US household usage.
Electrical Power Equivalents for Differing Lamps:
(ii) Heating and Cooling:
If a building’s indoor incandescent lamps are replaced by CFLs, the heat produced due to lighting will be reduced. At times when the building requires both heating and lighting, the heating system will make up the heat which, depending on the structure’s heating system, can actually increase total greenhouse gas emissions.
In British Columbia, Canada the provincial power authority estimated that greenhouse gas emissions would increase by 45,000 tons annually as a result of adopting CFL lighting. In colder climates this loss of heat can actually translate in to increased total energy costs.
In warmer climates where the building requires both illumination and cooling the opposite effect is observed as CFLs reduce the load on the cooling system compared to incandescent lamps, resulting in savings in electrical power. Overall energy cost saving depends on the climate; increased heating energy demand offsets some of the lighting energy saved.
Efficacy and Efficiency:
Because the eye’s sensitivity changes with the wavelength, the output of lamps is commonly measured in lumens, a measure of the power of light perceived by the human eye. The luminous efficacy of lamps refers to the number of lumens produced for each watt of electrical power used. A theoretically 100% efficient electric light source producing light only at the wavelength the human eye is most sensitive to would produce 680 lumens per watt.
The typical luminous efficacy of CFL lamps is 60 to 72 lumens per watt, and that of normal domestic incandescent lamps is 13 to 18 lm/W. Compared to the theoretical 100% efficient lamp, these figures are equivalent to lighting efficiency ranges of 9 to 11% for CFLs (60/680 and 72/680) and 1.9 to 2.6% for incandescent (13/680 and 18/680).
(iii) Cost:
While the purchase price of an integrated CFL is typically 3 to 10 times greater than that of an equivalent incandescent lamp, the extended lifetime and lower energy use will more than compensate for the higher initial cost. A US article stated “A household that invested $ 90 in changing 30 fixtures to CFLs would save $ 440 to $ 1,500 over the five-year life of the bulbs, depending on your cost of electricity. Look at your utility bill and imagine a 12% discount to estimate the savings.”
CFLs are extremely cost-effective in commercial buildings when used to replace incandescent lamps. Using average U.S. commercial electricity and gas rates for 2006, it is found that replacing each 75 W incandescent lamp with a CFL resulted in yearly savings of $22 in energy usage, reduced HVAC cost, and reduced labour to change lamps.
The incremental capital investment of $2 per fixture is typically paid back in about one month. Savings are greater and payback periods shorter in regions with higher electric rates and, to a lesser extent, also in regions with higher than U.S. average cooling requirements.
General Electric had considered changing one of its bulb plants to make CFLs, but even after a $ 40 million investment, wage differences would mean the bulbs would cost one and a half times those made in China.
(iv) Starting Time:
Incandescent reach full brightness a fraction of a second after being switched on. As of 2009[update], CFLs turn on within a second, but many still take time to warm up to full brightness. The light colour may be slightly different immediately after being turned on.
Some CFLs are marketed as ‘instant on’ and have no noticeable warm-up period, but others can take up to a minute to reach full brightness, or longer in very cold temperatures. Some that use a mercury amalgam can take up to three minutes to reach full output. This and the shorter life of CFLs when turned on and off for short periods may make CFLs less suitable for applications such as motion-activated lighting.
Hybrid CFL:
In November 2010, a company claimed that has unveiled in the market a Hybrid CFL lamp with Halogen inside as a solution for instant warm up time and brightness. When you flip the switch, the halogen bulb comes on instantly, and then after a minute, the CFL will have gotten fully lit, so the halogen bulb goes off.
Comparison with Alternative Technologies:
Solid-state lighting has already filled a few specialist niches such as traffic lights and may compete with CFLs for house lighting as well. LEDs providing over 200 lm/W have been demonstrated in laboratory tests and expected lifetimes of around 50,000 hours are typical.
The luminous efficacy of available LED lamps does not typically exceed that of CFLs. DOE testing of commercial LED lamps designed to replace incandescent or CFL lamps showed that average efficacy was still about 31 lm/W in 2008 (tested performance ranged from 4 lm/W to 62 lm/W).
General Electric discontinued a 2007 development project intended to develop a high-efficiency incandescent bulb with the same lumens per watt as fluorescent lamps. Meanwhile other companies have developed and are selling halogen incandescent that use 70% of the energy of standard incandescent.
Other CFL Technologies:
Another type of fluorescent lamp is the electrode less lamp, known as magnetic induction lamp, radio fluorescent lamp or fluorescent induction lamp. These lamps have no wire conductors penetrating their envelopes, and instead- excite mercury vapour using a radio-frequency oscillator.
Currently, this type of light source is struggling with a high cost of production, stability of the products produced by domestic manufacturers in China, establishing an internationally recognized standard and problems with EMC and RFI. Furthermore, induction lighting is excluded from Energy Star standard for 2007 by the EPA.
The cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) is one of the newest forms of CFL. CCFLs use electrodes without a filament. The voltage of CCFLs is about 5 times higher than CFLs, and the current is about 10 times lower. CCFLs have a diameter of about 3 millimetres. CCFLs were initially used for document scanners and also for backlighting LCD displays, but they are now also manufactured for use as lamps.
The efficacy (lumens per watt) is about half that of CFLs. Their advantages are that they are instant-on, like incandescent, they are compatible with timers, photocells, and dimmers, and they have a long life of approximately 50,000 hours.
CCFLs are a convenient transition technology for those who are not comfortable with the short lag time associated with the initial lighting of CFLs. They are also an effective and efficient replacement for lighting that is turned on and off frequently with little extended use (e.g., a bathroom or closet).
A few manufacturers make CFL-style bulbs with mogul Edison screw bases intended to replace 250 watt and 400 watt metal halide lamps, claiming a 50% energy reduction; however, these lamps require slight rewiring of the lamp fixtures to bypass the lamp ballast.
Essay # 6. Disadvantages of Compact Fluorescent Lamp:
(i) Health Issues:
The cost effectiveness of battery-powered CFLs is enabling aid agencies to support initiatives to replace kerosene lamps, the fumes from which cause chronic lung disorders in typical homes and work places in third world countries.
According to the European Commission Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) in 2008, the only property of compact fluorescent lamps that could pose an added health risk is the ultraviolet and blue light emitted by such devices.
The worst that can happen is that this radiation could aggravate symptoms in people who already suffer rare skin conditions that make them exceptionally sensitive to light. They also stated that more research is needed to establish whether compact fluorescent lamps constitute any higher risk than incandescent lamps.
If individuals are exposed to the light produced by some single-envelope compact fluorescent lamps for long periods of time at distances of less than 20 cm, it could lead to ultraviolet exposures approaching the current workplace limit set to protect workers from skin and retinal damage. The UV radiation received from CFLs is too small to contribute to skin cancer and the use of double-envelope CFL lamps ‘largely or entirely’ mitigates any other risks.
(ii) Environmental Issues:
Mercury Emissions:
CFLs, like all fluorescent lamps, contain small amounts of mercury as vapour inside the glass tubing. Most CFLs contain 3-5 mg per bulb, with the eco-friendly bulbs containing as little as 1 mg. Because mercury is poisonous, even these small amounts are a concern for landfills and waste incinerators where the mercury from lamps may be released and contribute to air and water pollution.
Health and environmental concerns about mercury have prompted many jurisdictions to require spent lamps to be properly disposed or recycled rather than being included in the general waste stream sent to landfills. So proper care is required while disposing the damaged CFLs.
Efforts to Encourage Adoption:
Due to the potential to reduce electric consumption and pollution, various organizations have encouraged the adoption of CFLs and other efficient lighting. Efforts range from publicity to encourage awareness, to direct hand-outs of CFLs to the public. Some electric utilities and local governments have subsidized CFLs or provided them free to customers as a means of reducing electric demand (and so delaying additional investments in generation).
More controversially, some governments are considering stronger measures to entirely displace incandescent. These measures include taxation, or bans on production of incandescent light bulbs that do not meet energy efficiency requirements.
In 2008, the European Union approved regulations progressively phasing out incandescent bulbs starting in 2009 and finishing at the end of 2012. By switching to energy saving bulbs, EU citizens will save almost 40 TW.h (almost the electricity consumption of 11 million European households), leading to a reduction of about 15 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.
Australia, Canada, and the US have also announced plans for nationwide efficiency standards that would constitute an effective ban on most current incandescent bulbs.
The United States Department of Energy reports that sales of CFLs have dropped between 2007 and 2008, and estimated only 11% of suitable domestic light sockets use CFLs.
In the USA, a subjective program called the Program for the Evaluation and Analysis of Residential Lighting (PEARL) was created to be a watchdog program. PEARL has evaluated the performance and ENERGY STAR, compliance of more than 150 models of CFL bulbs.
In India also almost all the states are encouraging to adopt CFLs in place of incandescent lamps and are providing incentives or even distributing CFLs to people free to save electricity.