Bright from the Start: GE's CFL with an incandescent trick up its sleeve

A pretty bright idea. At least at first.

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[TomL]

I've worked at GE on the development of this bulb. Dimming of the halogen capsule instead of a sharp turn-off was actually patented by a competitor who never released a product like this. Also, this lamp has just about the smallest room for the driver electronics of all CFLs, so an actual temperature compensation simply did not fit. There existed a different version with heater wire wrapped around the CFL tube instead of the halogen capsule, providing ca. 10-second runup without the light intensity and color changes.

[jajssblue]

Yo dawg, I heard you like lightbulbs. So I put a lightbulb in your lightbulb, so you can light while you light.

[alyx]

love how so much R&D was poured into fluorescent lighting only for LEDs to just immediately become the singular best lighting technology, and for old style halogens to probably stay way more common due to cars

[crystalsoulslayer]

Referring to Wikipedia as "this website I found" gets me _every single time._ It's just perfect.

[smrqdt]

As a child I believed the slow turning on was the reason energy-saving lamps saved energy. We still have a lot CFLs in the house, because they won’t die. I was so happy, when one of the CFLs in the ceiling light in the bathroom died. I could finally install a LED bulb so the light actually turns on when pressing the switch and not five minutes later.

[jimstanley_]

In the early 2000s, I swipped a CFL from a house I was leaving with 5 other tenants. It had a "globe" envelope, started very dim, and had a long warmup. The temperature was nice and low (I too am sensitive to clinically white interior illumination.) I used it as my bedside lamp for about 12 years, during which it came on in the morning when I woke up and burned all day until I went to bed. I still miss that bulb.

[floorpizza]

I'm convinced that Alec could make a 30 minute video about paint drying so interesting that I'd sit glued to my screen the entire time.

Best channel on YouTube.

[AssemblerGuy]

I did the conversion of the 5°F for y'all: It's -15°C, 464° Rankine, 215.15 Kelvin, about -3°Rømer, -6.7°Newton, 180°Delisle, and -16°Réaumur
Edit: Whoopsie - 0x8badf00d caught me in a mistake; it's not 215, 15 Kelvin, but 258, 15 Kelvin!

[BheeseAndCrackers]

Thank you for captioning your videos!! It allows me to enjoy your content much easier :)

[erniewarinner]

As a seventy-one year old, I consider myself fairly technologically intelligent. I am a retired broadcast radio engineer which had to be a jack of all trades. But I always learn something new from your videos. Keep up the good work.

[REALDIALM]

CFLs starting out dim was a huge bonus for me, when I was a teenager my mom would wake me up in the morning by just opening the door and flipping the light switch on. Great way to start your day getting blinded as someone says "time for school". After replacing the lights in my room with CFLs I no longer got blinded first thing in the morning.

[fireltd]

I have been a lighting consultant and owned my lighting supply for over 43 years and it’s been the energy laws that my state, California caused the country to eventually have to follow. In the beginning of the mandatory use of CFLs, dimming as not an option and one color temperature was how we got them. Slowly they added the colors but, as usual, each manufacturer had a different idea of what a 3000 Kelvin or a 2700 Kelvin so you could not mix manufacturer’s as you could see a color shift. We also had a lot of issues with screw in units when the socket had to be in the up position and then there were life expectancy issues when the lamp was used in an enclosed fixture and bad light output when used in exterior fixtures in cold environments. I, for 1 am glad we have moved on and we do sell an interesting LED replacement bulbs that fit the existing PL type fixtures but if you can, replace the fixture with a dedicated LED light source given that you can get more light, higher lumens per watt in a safer package and will last 35 to 50, 000 hours compared to 20, 000 hours and should be disposed of as hazardous waste. My 2 cents.

[Mystprism]

Alec, have you considered covering ventilation as a topic? ERVs, bathroom and utility room fans vs in line duct fans, hood vents, etc? Air quality is on a lot of people's minds, and it would be cool if you covered all of the HVAC acronym!

[Deltarious]

I just want to point out that "fix[ing] the sometimes" is one of the most fundamentally satisfying things in life to me, and I wish we would focus on it more as a species

[leleedler]

Seeing the "ground breaking light bulb from Phillips" brought back some serious memories, my father was an architectural advisor for a very wealthy neighborhood near me and these were all the rave. He would quite frequently take me on trips to see job sites and those boxes were everywhere! His passion turned me into an architect and I very much so remember these and feeling like they were foreign damn near alien lightbulbs when I was a kid!

[carolinavenger]

>15 years ago
>2009

What are you talking about, 2009 was like 3 years ag... oh my god

[naotak]

Alec, I recently replaced the taillights on my MK6 VW Jetta, and you'll be tickled to know I specifically bought new fixtures that have amber colored rear turn signals; thus righting a decade-long wrong.

[ZealousDragon]

I wanted to take a moment of your time and say Thank You for all the years of informing and educating us. I have spent countless hours viewing your videos and it has impacted my life, "positively". THANK YOU.

[noebadabing]

Glad you changed the thumbnail to say it wasn't an april fools, genuinely wouldn't have clicked on it otherwise.

[KurosakiYukigo]

Your descriptions are always on a new level of meta-commentary.