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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #1673
>
> Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2002 16:18:59 -0800
> From: Dave Gomberg <gomberg at wcf_com>
> Subject: Compact fluorescent lamp life
>
> I bought a pair of Panasonic 96w cf tubes from AHSupply in Dec.
> 1999. This month one of them failed. They have been running about
10-12
> hours per day split over two light periods per day (afternoon
> thunderstorm). So that is about 8000 hours when the first tube failed.
>
> But the surprising thing was that when I replaced the failed tube I would
> estimate the replacement was 2 stops (4x) brighter than the remaining
> original. I thought someone had written that cfs didn't dim much, run
> them till they die. Well I can tell you that with 5 hour on periods,
they
> dim a lot in the first 8000 hours.
>
> If you have older pc tubes, you should maybe get a replacement set and
> replace one. See if it makes a big difference in the brightness. If it
> does, you can keep the old faded one as a spare.
>
> And many thanks to AHSupply for the great replacement service, 2 days from
> order to receipt! And the best prices!
>> Dave Gomberg, San Francisco gomberg at wcf dot com
> http://www.wcf.com/co2iron for low cost CO2 systems that work!
> - -----------------------------------------------------------------
Someone correct me if I'm wrong here...but I was of the belief that new
fluorescent bulbs have a break in curve where the initial light output is
higher for a certain period of time ( don't remember what the time is) until
they "break in". There was a study I read about that measured the lumens of
new bulbs VS bulbs that had run for a while and showed a fairly high break
in curve for so many hours where the bulbs actually measure higher than
their specs then they settle down to the specked light output. I have
noticed this myself with my CF's on my tank and it's noticeable ( I broke a
pin removing a bulb once and had to replace it). Maybe someone out there can
point us to some technical info on this.
Relaxing in CT,
Bob Buettner
http://www.home.cshore.com/luna/Fishpics/Fishpicstn.html