Circline wows

[Art Todesco]

I have 4 cheapo circline fixtures in my house; 2 in the utility room and one in each of 2 bedroom closets. They each have 2 circline bulbs, a 22 watt and a 32 watt, with an electronic ballast and a round plastic cover. The bulbs are constantly burning out. They are only 5 years old and already I've replace most of them, some twice. Plus they are pretty expensive, comparatively. I think the problem is the closets, actually one of the closets. It gets used many times per day, so it is on/off a lot, although the 2 in the utility room are close behind. The 2nd closet gets used very little, so that one has not been a problem. I looked for LED circline replacements and right now, they are super expensive. Of course, you have to replace the ballast with an electronic power supply. Even though the fixtures are cheap, I like the simple look and would like to maybe put in some LED bulbs. I've found double, quad and even quint sockets ... no triples ... kinda like these on ebay:

Mini candelabra base LED bulbs would be best for size, however, they are more expensive than the regular full sized base. I've even thought of taking an old circline bulb and wrapping it with LED tape and using a

12 volt power supply. I've already put LED tape lights in the kitchen, under the upper cabinets and they look really nice. Any other ideas?

[Stormin Mormon]

Sounds like you might be best off to replace the entire fixture. That said, you can look on Ebay, Amazon, etc. That link to four hole Edison base should hold the LED you like.

Since you have some LED tapes already, maybe put them on the same power supply?

12 volts means you can put a car or trolling battery some where, in case the grid power is off. Blackout, who cares? We got light.

- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

.

[hrhofmann]

New fixtures probably best in the long run.

[terry]

Seems like a completely incorrect choice of and and use of circline lamps/fixtures. Surely fluorescent lamps should not be used where they are frequently switched on and off and are only used for brief periods?

[Ed Pawlowski]

Best solution is to replace the fixtures. They went out of style in

1962 and for good reason. LED with the daylight bulbs will brighten things up.

[Art Todesco]

Sorry I took so long to reply to this. Actually these circline bulbs are run by an electronic ballast so the traumatic startup of a traditional fluorescent, heater coils and magnetic ballast are eliminated. The are just run on a high voltage that instantly causes the gases to ionize. I don't know the science behind what is causing the bulbs to fail, so electronic ballasts may not help anyway ... and it certainly doesn't play out in my case. That said, I really want to make a change to LEDs. As I said in the original post, I like the look of these fixtures so I may just convert them ... at least the 3 that are on and off a lot. I'll also have to look around to see what fixtures might be available today.

[trader_4]

Or if he wants less expensive, I've used flourescent circular fixtures made by Lights of America, bought in HD, for closets, mud room, etc. I've had them for 15+ years, changed bulbs maybe once in some of them. Similar should be available. Or, he could buy an inexpensive incandescent type and put screw-in LED bulbs in it, which have come down in price.

[Art Todesco]

That's almost exactly what I have, except they were from Lithonia. And they were sold for closets, etc. and have 2 circline fluorescents. I think mine were from either HD or Lowe's. Oh well, I guess it's either modify or replace.

[hrhofmann]

Art,

The fluorescent light fixtures that use a high voltage to strike the arc st ill wear off a little of the activation chemical coating that is on all flu orescent bulbs. So, even though the lights are more or less instant on, and there is no wear and tear on the filament itself, each off-on cycle still uses up a little of the filament coating, hence the short lifetime of the b ulbs.

[TimR]

On Thursday, October 23, 2014 10:11:56 PM UTC-4, [e-mail] wrot e:

still wear off a little of the activation chemical coating that is on all f luorescent bulbs. So, even though the lights are more or less instant on, a nd there is no wear and tear on the filament itself, each off-on cycle stil l uses up a little of the filament coating, hence the short lifetime of the bulbs.

And just where would I find a filament in a fluorescent tube?

[Taxpayer]

[Stormin Mormon]

high voltage to strike the arc still wear off a little of the activation chemical coating that is on all fluorescent bulbs. So, even though the lights are more or less instant on, and there is no wear and tear on the filament itself, each off-on cycle still uses up a little of the filament coating, hence the short lifetime of the bulbs.

Usually at the end.

Scroll down about 1/3 the page and read under "starting" Preheating

This technique uses a combination filament?cathode at each end of the lamp in conjunction with a mechanical or automatic (bi-metallic) switch (see circuit diagram to the right) that initially connect the filaments in series with the ballast to preheat them; when the arc is struck the filaments are disconnected. This system is described as preheat in some countries and switchstart in others.[21] These systems are standard equipment in

200?240 V countries (and for 100?120 V lamps up to about 30 watts).

- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

.

[TimR]

I'm familiar with the operation of fluorescent lamps.

I objected to the use of the word filament because it's not, it's a cathode . At least, it's always been a cathode for all the engineers I worked with.

But now I have to eat my words. Google tells me it's common to refer to it either way. I don't like that as it is imprecise except for those times w here there really is a filament, but I have to accept that it is common pra ctice, and apologize to the poster who first used the word above.

[Stormin Mormon]

not, it's a cathode. At least, it's always been a cathode for all the engineers I worked with.

common to refer to it either way. I don't like that as it is imprecise except for those times where there really is a filament, but I have to accept that it is common practice, and apologize to the poster who first used the word above.

I think it's used as a heater, so we can call it a heater filament, not a light filament. Hope that takes some of the strain off?

[hrhofmann]

I go back to vacuum tube days when the filament heated the cathode. If you were really old, like 100+ years old, the filament actually was also the cathode in the earliest vacuum tubes.

Apologies accepted............