Re: Compact Flourescent Brightness

In <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Marrow wrote:
>I recently purchased a couple GE CFL bulbs, and noticed an interesting
>phenomenon.  When I first turn these bulbs on, they are much dimmer than
>expected, but over the course of 30 to 60 seconds they become noticeably
>brighter.  Is it normal for flourescents to get brighter as they warm up?
>I've never noticed this before with other flourescent lighting.

  This is normal.  Compact fluorescent tubing gets hotter than wider 
fluorescent tubing does.  Compact fluorescents are designed to achieve 
the optimum concentration of mercury vapor when they are warmed up, and 
are quite low on mercury vapor when the tubing is at room temperature.
  Ones with wider tubing that does not get so hot such as GE's "2D" are 
not as bad at being dim when started.

>Also, does anyone make a CFL bulb which is the equivalent of a 75W
>incandescent?  The ones I've seen have all been 60W and 100W equivalents.

  I have seen enough 19 and 20 watt spiral compact fluorescents at KMart, 
Target, Home Depot and at some hardware stores.  Home Depot also has 20 
watt Philips SLS.  I would guess that Lowes has 20 watt Sylvania ones.

 - Don Klipstein ([EMAIL PROTECTED])