What makes cfl flicker

Consumer Reports plans on testing two dimmer switches designed specifically for CFL bulbs and hopes to publish our findings in the fall. Some of our readers have reported seeing smoke coming from CFLs. Even if the bulb can no longer ignite due to the lack of available mercury in the tube or other failure, the electronics still keep trying to ignite it. That can overheat the electronics and plastic housing, which causes the smoke. So while this was a rare event with the older bulbs we never had one occurrence in more than a million hours of life-testing bulbs in our labs , it should be eliminated completely as the older bulbs are replaced.

For our tests of CFLs , we worked with a lab to determine how much available mercury is in each new bulb. This is the amount of mercury that would be released if the bulb were broken. There's currently no industry standard for measuring the amount of mercury. Our tests found that all of the watt equivalent bulbs we tested had significantly less than the 5mg allowed by Energy Star , and some had less than 1mg.

Vacate the area for at least 15 minutes, open a window, and turn off any central air conditioning or forced heating system. Don't reach for a vacuum right away; instead remove as much as possible with sticky tape, since the vacuum itself can get contaminated and reintroduce mercury into the air.

A watt incandescent bulb can be replaced by an watt CFL because the lumen ouput is approximately the same ; a watt incandescent can be replaced by a watt CFL, both providing about 1, lumens. The Environmental Defense Web site provides a handy chart comparing the watts and lumens of incandescents versus CFLs, along with further discussion about color temperature.

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See Subscription Options. You need to heat up the bulb contact put a little bit of solder to create a good contact area between the bulb's contact metal and soldering iron tip , and then feed solder so that the flux is able to clean the surfaces, allowing the solder to flow. The first step is to use the dremel tool to make a small indentation between the two contacts of the bulb in the picture, the groove is cut onto the black material, don't cut too deep.

This "groove" is where the two resistors will sit. The two resistors should be V or higher rated resistors. Two are needed to total V, assuming V AC line voltage. If you have a V system, you should use two V or higher rated resistors, and also go no lower than a total of k ohms of resistance.

The reason for the groove is so that the resistors don't stick out too much, so that the bulb can still be screwed in. The resistors don't have to sit flush, though, and can stick out slightly. If the groove is slightly more than half the height of the resistor, that is enough.

The groove also helps hold the resistor in place while working. Once you have the "groove", put a dab of solder onto the ends of the "groove", on each of the two contacts of the bulb. You want to put solder here first, as it's hard to get solder to stick to the bulb's contacts properly. Then, using the tweezers, put one leg of the resistor on each blob of solder, so that one resistor is on one contact, and the other is on the other contact.

The final step is to put some solder inbetween the two resistors so that it completes the circuit. Test, and you are done! Hopefully the flashing will go away. If the flashing does not go away, you can try using a lower resistance value. For example, you can try two resistors to give a total of k ohm, etc. Note that the lower you go, the more power will be dissapated when the CFL is on.

When the CFL is off, the resistor uses barely any power, as the current is very low already. I would recommend keeping the total resistance higher than k ohms. Is the flickerring very dangerous? If it is what is the moderation of its danger? Is this normal or should I be worried?

No more flickering, and hopefully no more current being drawn off the circuit. The amount of current being drawn by the DFL bulbs when off was enough to make them warm, even hot, to the touch. I don't want that much current flowing through even a resistor. I'll bet LED bulbs are even cheaper than the fix recommended here, and no code violations.

The other two wires, line and neutral, go back to the panel indirectly as they are connected to other loads in that circuit So there are 4 wires in that junction box to which the light fixture is attached. You can employ a relay with a dry contact and connect that residual energy to ground. It cannot cause any damage as it is leakage current and as if it were a 12 volt battery or electrostatic current you get in low humidity from walking on a rug and grounding to metal.

No code violation as there is no unapproved methods employed or altered UL approved loads and grounding is acceptable.