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    #21
    Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

    Originally posted by RJARRRPCGP View Post
    Without removing any of the bulbs:

    (The cord was scuffed when I bought the fixture, IIRC, LOL)
    LMFAO - they even painted/anodised the endcaps green!!!!!

    Comment


      #22
      Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

      Originally posted by stj View Post
      a flourescent tube contains a drip of mercury,
      when you turn it on from cold it has to heat the mercury to make it vaporise and spread through the tube for the tube to start and light evenly.
      thats why sometimes when you turn it on you may see the ends glow - that's the heaters
      I liked that heater glow that I saw on a fluorescent tube at the Springfield community center, over one of the pool tables.
      ASRock B550 PG Velocita

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      "¡Me encanta "Me Encanta o Enlistarlo con Hilary Farr!" -Mí mismo

      "There's nothing more unattractive than a chick smoking a cigarette" -Topcat

      "Today's lesson in pissivity comes in the form of a ziplock baggie full of GPU extension brackets & hardware that for the last ~3 years have been on my bench, always in my way, getting moved around constantly....and yesterday I found myself in need of them....and the bastards are now nowhere to be found! Motherfracker!!" -Topcat

      "did I see a chair fly? I think I did! Time for popcorn!" -ratdude747

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        #23
        Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

        Originally posted by stj View Post
        LMFAO - they even painted/anodised the endcaps green!!!!!
        Yeah, that's a trademark of Philips Alto branded bulbs... Product "differentiation" ...

        Can't think of other brands that did something like this, but if you see green, it's an alto.

        I think I have a bunch of F40T12 Altos spare for my fluorescent fixtures. I'm not sure which of my fixtures have E-ballasts or not and the F40T12s should work for any ballast I think...

        Originally posted by RJARRRPCGP View Post
        I liked that heater glow that I saw on a fluorescent tube at the Springfield community center, over one of the pool tables.
        Unfortunately it's a tell tale sign of EOL I think. Fluorescent tubes' filaments shouldn't remain glowing or at least you shouldn't see them glow orange after they're lit. If they are, the starter is leaking too much as it's thinking the tube hasn't fully lit, and probably also destroyed the phosphor near the filament (or a F40T12 whose phosphors aren't as thick) so you can see it.
        Last edited by eccerr0r; 02-18-2021, 06:51 PM.

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          #24
          Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

          straying off topic a bit but has anyone else ever taken fluorescent tubes under high voltage wires like pylon wires ?

          Comment


            #25
            Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

            Originally posted by eccerr0r View Post
            Unfortunately it's a tell tale sign of EOL I think.
            It's during startup and then the glow stops quickly.
            ASRock B550 PG Velocita

            Ryzen 9 "Vermeer" 5900X

            16 GB AData XPG Spectrix D41

            Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6750 XT

            eVGA Supernova G3 750W

            Western Digital Black SN850 1TB NVMe SSD

            Alienware AW3423DWF OLED




            "¡Me encanta "Me Encanta o Enlistarlo con Hilary Farr!" -Mí mismo

            "There's nothing more unattractive than a chick smoking a cigarette" -Topcat

            "Today's lesson in pissivity comes in the form of a ziplock baggie full of GPU extension brackets & hardware that for the last ~3 years have been on my bench, always in my way, getting moved around constantly....and yesterday I found myself in need of them....and the bastards are now nowhere to be found! Motherfracker!!" -Topcat

            "did I see a chair fly? I think I did! Time for popcorn!" -ratdude747

            Comment


              #26
              Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

              do american starters have anything other than the glass bit in them??

              in europe they have to have a film cap across the switch to suppress noise.
              also, osram had some comercial ones with a latching bi-metal switch that cut the heaters if they stayed on too long - to avoid the 24/7 flicker/glow in unattended fittings.

              Comment


                #27
                Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                I don't recall, been a while since I had an open "classical"/"neon-heater" starter. Thought they all should have a bimetal switch... but probably no caps. I'd imagine that the noise generation would be extremely short lived and that's why they omit them in the USA starters?

                I forgot I actually had a PL-13 (with its integrated starter) hooked up to an electronic ballast. It starts up fairly quickly, but not instant start like typical CFLs. Blinks are very short in duration (like 0.1 second) unlike magnetic ballasts with bimetal starters (which have 1-2 second blinks...)

                Comment


                  #28
                  Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                  If you see it glowing after they have been on for a few minutes and it will not stop glowing replace the light bulb the when they first start doing or else you can fry the blast

                  The green colored end cap ones and I do care who manufactures them are hit and miss with quality I have replaced a many of them

                  I have gotten some out of case one time 4 to 8 that in a very short time were dim and shortly after that they started glowing sent them back to the vendor for credit a few months later the same thing happened again went with another brand of bulbs

                  The explanation that I got was they did not put enough mercury in them when they were manufactured and apparently it was this one plant that was having the issue

                  I buy the LED light bulb that replace the fluorescent bulbs yes they cost more but I have had them installed sense 2017 and this light fixture is on most days 16 hours every day for most part

                  If I had regular fluorescent bulbs in like I use to I would probably be close to replacing by now

                  The only weird thing about this type of LED fluorescent type of tube is that when you turn off the power to them they glow for a moment and fade out but has done this from the day I installed them
                  Last edited by sam_sam_sam; 03-01-2021, 03:48 PM.
                  9 PC LCD Monitor
                  6 LCD Flat Screen TV
                  30 Desk Top Switching Power Supply
                  10 Battery Charger Switching Power Supply for Power Tool
                  6 18v Lithium Battery Power Boards for Tool Battery Packs
                  1 XBox 360 Switching Power Supply and M Board
                  25 Servo Drives 220/460 3 Phase
                  6 De-soldering Station Switching Power Supply 1 Power Supply
                  1 Dell Mother Board
                  15 Computer Power Supply
                  1 HP Printer Supply & Control Board * lighting finished it *


                  These two repairs where found with a ESR meter...> Temp at 50*F then at 90*F the ESR reading more than 10%

                  1 Over Head Crane Current Sensing Board ( VFD Failure Five Years Later )
                  2 Hem Saw Computer Stack Board

                  All of these had CAPs POOF
                  All of the mosfet that are taken out by bad caps

                  Comment


                    #29
                    Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                    There were a faulty batch of Alto II 48-inch T8s manufactured in 2018.
                    (broken filament)
                    ASRock B550 PG Velocita

                    Ryzen 9 "Vermeer" 5900X

                    16 GB AData XPG Spectrix D41

                    Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6750 XT

                    eVGA Supernova G3 750W

                    Western Digital Black SN850 1TB NVMe SSD

                    Alienware AW3423DWF OLED




                    "¡Me encanta "Me Encanta o Enlistarlo con Hilary Farr!" -Mí mismo

                    "There's nothing more unattractive than a chick smoking a cigarette" -Topcat

                    "Today's lesson in pissivity comes in the form of a ziplock baggie full of GPU extension brackets & hardware that for the last ~3 years have been on my bench, always in my way, getting moved around constantly....and yesterday I found myself in need of them....and the bastards are now nowhere to be found! Motherfracker!!" -Topcat

                    "did I see a chair fly? I think I did! Time for popcorn!" -ratdude747

                    Comment


                      #30
                      Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                      Originally posted by RJARRRPCGP View Post
                      There were a faulty batch of Alto II 48-inch T8s manufactured in 2018.
                      (broken filament)
                      They have been having manufacturer issues from time many times in the past I did not know about the one in 2018 that a new one for me

                      I have watched the show “How it Made” here is the segment

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwsDvINxA84

                      they had a segment about how they made fluorescent light bulbs
                      They showed the quality controls that they have as they moving the production line this was very interesting to watch
                      Last edited by sam_sam_sam; 03-01-2021, 07:16 PM.
                      9 PC LCD Monitor
                      6 LCD Flat Screen TV
                      30 Desk Top Switching Power Supply
                      10 Battery Charger Switching Power Supply for Power Tool
                      6 18v Lithium Battery Power Boards for Tool Battery Packs
                      1 XBox 360 Switching Power Supply and M Board
                      25 Servo Drives 220/460 3 Phase
                      6 De-soldering Station Switching Power Supply 1 Power Supply
                      1 Dell Mother Board
                      15 Computer Power Supply
                      1 HP Printer Supply & Control Board * lighting finished it *


                      These two repairs where found with a ESR meter...> Temp at 50*F then at 90*F the ESR reading more than 10%

                      1 Over Head Crane Current Sensing Board ( VFD Failure Five Years Later )
                      2 Hem Saw Computer Stack Board

                      All of these had CAPs POOF
                      All of the mosfet that are taken out by bad caps

                      Comment


                        #31
                        Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                        Wonder how many companies are still making linear fluorescents, I suspect there's still a huge market for replacements...
                        Not even sure if there are any chinese linear fluorescents yet? Perhaps whoever bought GE's lamp division, but all of the linear fluorescents I have are either GE or Philips...

                        Comment


                          #32
                          Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                          You can still find them online but they are a little bit expensive compared to other regular fluorescents light bulbs

                          I work at company a long time ago that these type of linear fluorescents in can fixtures and the heat generated by these linear fluorescent light bulbs would destroy them in about a year or so
                          9 PC LCD Monitor
                          6 LCD Flat Screen TV
                          30 Desk Top Switching Power Supply
                          10 Battery Charger Switching Power Supply for Power Tool
                          6 18v Lithium Battery Power Boards for Tool Battery Packs
                          1 XBox 360 Switching Power Supply and M Board
                          25 Servo Drives 220/460 3 Phase
                          6 De-soldering Station Switching Power Supply 1 Power Supply
                          1 Dell Mother Board
                          15 Computer Power Supply
                          1 HP Printer Supply & Control Board * lighting finished it *


                          These two repairs where found with a ESR meter...> Temp at 50*F then at 90*F the ESR reading more than 10%

                          1 Over Head Crane Current Sensing Board ( VFD Failure Five Years Later )
                          2 Hem Saw Computer Stack Board

                          All of these had CAPs POOF
                          All of the mosfet that are taken out by bad caps

                          Comment


                            #33
                            Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                            they are hard to ship, so different country's have different brands.
                            but the big ones still cant be beaten for lumens/W by leds.

                            in europe we mostly see GE(made in hungary i think), sylvania, osram and philips.

                            Comment


                              #34
                              Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                              Yeah I was wondering about the shipping issue, and it appears all my T12 and T8 linear fluorescent bulbs are made in the USA. I only have Philips and GE bulbs as far as I can tell.

                              True that lumens/W for fluorescent bulbs are worse than LEDs but it's not as stark as incandescent vs LED and the infrastructure replacement cost is large as well... Not sure if they can make LED retrofit tubes worthwhile/cost effective as a replacement yet in terms of initial cost, equivalent brightness, and longevity. If LEDs are 4x cost, 2x longevity (fluorescent bulbs last quite a while if they are not mistreated!), and half the power, it's not entirely clear if it's worth it.

                              Comment


                                #35
                                Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                                Originally posted by eccerr0r View Post
                                True that lumens/W for fluorescent bulbs are worse than LEDs
                                no, i meant the other way.
                                look at T12 5foot 58/65ww tubes.
                                5000Lumens.

                                Comment


                                  #36
                                  Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                                  They are still about the same or less lumens per watt last I checked, neither have that much of an advantage. At 58W 5000lm = 86lm/W, which is not that far from LEDs which can get around 100lm/W.

                                  The F40T12 I have usually get around 3200lm. I have $1 overdriven 14W 1500lm LEDs, so 28W to produce 3000lm which over 100lm/W. Unfortunately they're cheap crap models and only rated for 15000 hours which is not much far off to the life of a typical F40T12, and to swap them out I'd need new fixtures... so cost cost cost.

                                  Granted if you want to power cycle the fluorescent bulb vs LED, you're better off with the latter... Alas I'm not going to swap out linear fluorescent fixtures for LED compatible fixtures. Also linear fluorescent lighting is not point source, more of line source, and at least for me, shadows of darkness are annoying.
                                  Last edited by eccerr0r; 03-02-2021, 02:03 PM.

                                  Comment


                                    #37
                                    Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                                    the 5000lumen tube isnt generating anywere near the heat of the leds though - and they spread the light all around

                                    Comment


                                      #38
                                      Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                                      err... watch your energy conversions!

                                      The fluorescent tube is necessarily generating more heat because more watts in and same light out. Energy cannot be destroyed, just converted.

                                      however the LED has localized heating - some spots will be hotter. However, if the LED had a metal heatsink as big as a fluorescent tube, you'll find the LED(s) will be cooler!

                                      Comment


                                        #39
                                        Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                                        Originally posted by stj View Post
                                        we mostly see GE(made in hungary i think)
                                        Those seem to be the most popular GE incandescents, at least for the 3-way ones! There were a ton of them in the late-2010s.
                                        ASRock B550 PG Velocita

                                        Ryzen 9 "Vermeer" 5900X

                                        16 GB AData XPG Spectrix D41

                                        Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6750 XT

                                        eVGA Supernova G3 750W

                                        Western Digital Black SN850 1TB NVMe SSD

                                        Alienware AW3423DWF OLED




                                        "¡Me encanta "Me Encanta o Enlistarlo con Hilary Farr!" -Mí mismo

                                        "There's nothing more unattractive than a chick smoking a cigarette" -Topcat

                                        "Today's lesson in pissivity comes in the form of a ziplock baggie full of GPU extension brackets & hardware that for the last ~3 years have been on my bench, always in my way, getting moved around constantly....and yesterday I found myself in need of them....and the bastards are now nowhere to be found! Motherfracker!!" -Topcat

                                        "did I see a chair fly? I think I did! Time for popcorn!" -ratdude747

                                        Comment


                                          #40
                                          Re: Light bulb flicker when turning on after long time off.

                                          Originally posted by eccerr0r View Post
                                          Not even sure if there are any chinese linear fluorescents yet?
                                          Satco, Sylvania, Duracell (Sold exclusively at Batteries + Bulbs), and a number of generic brands that are not worth listing seem to get their linear lamps from China, i've also seen Satco F40T12s from China.

                                          Oh, and the green end caps of Philips fluorescent tubes might be going away as Philips packs up the Salina, Kansas factory to move overseas (saw a few F40T12s at the Home Cheapo recently with silver end caps, made around December 2020).
                                          I'm not a expert, I'm just doing my best.

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