It has recently come to my attention that the compact fluorescent bulbs sold in the united states and canada are not nearly as efficient as the supposed power consumption rating, (wattage), that is printed on the bulb and the box.
There are two types of power, real power and apparent power.
real power is the capacity of your circuit to do work at specific point in time, ie. a 40w cfl really only uses 40w of 'real power' to power its load, the lamp.
Apparent power is the voltage x amperage that is provided to the circuit, and this is what you are charged for by the power company.
Inductive loads, (such as lamp ballasts and transformers, motors etc.) are infact inductors! and will store energy as current passes through them. with a/c the current is constantly changing one direction to the other, (at 60cycles per second, (hz), in most areas of north america), when the flow of current switches direction the inductor releases its energy, but a split second afterwards, making the current 'out of phase' to the input current. to compensate for this the circuit will draw more current, even though this current isnt being used to directly power the load and is sent back to the grid!
the ratio between real power and apparent power is described as the power factor. usually a number from 0-1.0. quality ballasts, like those sold with the hps bulbs have a power factor near 1.0. this achieved by adding that large capacitor into the circuit. without the capacitor the lamps would most likely still run, but would cost 30-40% more to run, (that figure is an estimate).
so to simplify things here, a cfl uses a small ballast circuit containing an inductive transformer. this transformer places the a/c current out of phase and thus the circuit must compensate by providing extra current that is not used to power the lamp, but is sent back to the grid. these CFL's are built with poor power factor correction in mind and most have shown to usually have a power factor rating of a pitiful 0.55! that means if your lamp says it is rated at 40w, it will actually consume 40w/0.55 = 72.72 watts!
This can be verified for yourself if you have access to a wattmetre and a multimetre.
Sorry if this has been covered in a previous thread, it just came to my attention and i was outraged at the misinformation.
Also i only have a novice understanding of circuits and electronics, and the power factoring is new to me so i may not have the explanation 100% correct. but it is basically what is happening in these circuits.
the main fact rests, we are being mislead into believing that these bulbs are of high efficiency, when infact we are paying almost double in some cases to the power companies to use them.
If you are the experimental or diy type, you can google ways to power factor correct your cfl's by changing in different capacitors into the circuit.
Hope this reaches the cfl growers, peace
There are two types of power, real power and apparent power.
real power is the capacity of your circuit to do work at specific point in time, ie. a 40w cfl really only uses 40w of 'real power' to power its load, the lamp.
Apparent power is the voltage x amperage that is provided to the circuit, and this is what you are charged for by the power company.
Inductive loads, (such as lamp ballasts and transformers, motors etc.) are infact inductors! and will store energy as current passes through them. with a/c the current is constantly changing one direction to the other, (at 60cycles per second, (hz), in most areas of north america), when the flow of current switches direction the inductor releases its energy, but a split second afterwards, making the current 'out of phase' to the input current. to compensate for this the circuit will draw more current, even though this current isnt being used to directly power the load and is sent back to the grid!
the ratio between real power and apparent power is described as the power factor. usually a number from 0-1.0. quality ballasts, like those sold with the hps bulbs have a power factor near 1.0. this achieved by adding that large capacitor into the circuit. without the capacitor the lamps would most likely still run, but would cost 30-40% more to run, (that figure is an estimate).
so to simplify things here, a cfl uses a small ballast circuit containing an inductive transformer. this transformer places the a/c current out of phase and thus the circuit must compensate by providing extra current that is not used to power the lamp, but is sent back to the grid. these CFL's are built with poor power factor correction in mind and most have shown to usually have a power factor rating of a pitiful 0.55! that means if your lamp says it is rated at 40w, it will actually consume 40w/0.55 = 72.72 watts!
This can be verified for yourself if you have access to a wattmetre and a multimetre.
Sorry if this has been covered in a previous thread, it just came to my attention and i was outraged at the misinformation.
Also i only have a novice understanding of circuits and electronics, and the power factoring is new to me so i may not have the explanation 100% correct. but it is basically what is happening in these circuits.
the main fact rests, we are being mislead into believing that these bulbs are of high efficiency, when infact we are paying almost double in some cases to the power companies to use them.
If you are the experimental or diy type, you can google ways to power factor correct your cfl's by changing in different capacitors into the circuit.
Hope this reaches the cfl growers, peace
