Static charge does it, I had one on a table near my entrance, in winter with dry air I by accident touched it one night comming inside and it lit up, so I left the bulb there and every night for fun I touch it and it lights up with my static buildup.
You have an "electrifying personality" and "light up the room" when you enter. :-/
Jeff The Drunk wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.alt.net:
Have you ever checked out the circuit for a disposable camera flash? the trigger for the flashtube is a several KV pulse from the trigger coil,but it goes to an electrode on the outside of the flashtube;there's no complete circuit except for the capacitance of the electrode-to-tube. So the trigger pulse causes current from the main capacitor to flow in the tube. Perhaps the CFL tube is acting like a flashtube and the body charge on the person holding it is the "trigger pulse",and the retained charge on the main cap is then passed thru the tube. People can build up a few KV before they even feel a static discharge.
It cant be the Capacitor I left the bulb near my entrace on the radiator for a month and would make it Light several times a day from my static charge that was at its maximum when I took off my jacket , at which point taking it off generated my charge buildup, its was the inexpensive nylon or similar material winter jacket.
I have heard of and a couple times seen CFLs occaisionally flashing dimly from leakage current.
And fluorescents do not necessarily need the filaments to be preheated as a condition of glowing. Ever hear of what in North America is referred to as "instant start"?
I have seen many CFLs like that. And static electricity does easily cause fluorescents to visible flicker in a dark room, even if charge couples capacitively through the glass.
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
CFLs are also effected by too high or too low voltages, as a buddy who uses CFLs on a inverter found out.......
This wasnt in a dark room the flash was pretty bright, I'm familiar with the tiny flicker you can get from a static charge. This was much brighter than that. My main concern beyond curiosity is that this may be a shock hazard. Not that it would probably hurt you directly but I can imagine someone coming off the top of a ladder because of something like this.
Jimmie
Standing on ceramic tile. No significant amount of RF in the area.
Jimmie
Good for you.
Has nothing to do with holding a CFL in your hand
This wasn't a flicker in a dark room.
Like I mentioned in my last post several days ago I have changed my mind somewhat that a charged smoother cap on the DC bridge side might be able to flash a CFL in your hand IF it was poorly soldered and was fully charged then bumped back into connection. But since most CFLs even rapid starting use a combination cathode/filament I have my doubts. I recently had a rapid or as you call it, "instant" start CFL fail. Guess what? When it failed it would not fire but it did glow orange-ish faintly on the very ends of the tube indicating it does heat the filaments. My contention is there would not be enough current at sufficient voltage stored in the smoother cap to supply the inverter circuit and the filament to make a momentary arc in the tube. if you believe otherwise well good for you we'll just agree to disagree and go on with out lives.
I seem to think that in this case minor static shocked the CFL into utilizing very briefly energy that the main filter capacitor had on hand.
And those bigger capacitors have a substantial rate of slowing down their self-discharge rate as self-discharge prgresses, and they even have stored energy that avoids being entirely discharged by a very brief true short, let alone a partial one.
However, I would question as to a dim flash appearing bright to someone mentally unprepared to expect such a flash.
One thing that I like to mention:
It's magic! ROTFL
TDD
Only due to visibly glowing/flickering from static electricity having high independence from the CFL's designed starting method. I have high personal experience with CFLs having at least 3 different starting methods.
What are we talking about here?
Glowing faintly orange at the ends and nowhere else is not what in North America is referred to as "instant start".
Please keep in mind that in North America, "rapid start" differs from "instant start" by requiring significant filament heating.
How about a mode other than "arc", even used in commercial practice in many CFLs although quite a minority of them? As in the "cold cathode" ones where "glow discharge" (different from arc, especially a hot-cathode arc) is outright Plan A? I saw very many thousands of CFLs, likely 10,000's of CFLs, of "cold cathode" type last 3 times I was in Las Vegas, in late 2006, 2007, and 2009.
And I have made fluorescent lamps glow spectacularly bright (even if well short of normal brightness) with non-arc discharge, even using fluorescent lamps designed for arc discharge, and I have especially made fluorescent lamps not only visibly glow but also spectacularly glow from static electricity without so much as resorting to the likes of capacitors and Vanm de Graaf generators.
It has been noted that fluorescent lamps at least often have greatest efficiency at currents less than what they were nominally designed to handle. As well as I can remember, it appears to me fair chance that books authored by Elenbaas and the first of the two related Waymouths most notably working in the electric lamp industry (according to the younger one posting into the Usenet newsgroup sci.engr.lighting in my experience) explain that well enough, slight chance only one of those two authors make that case in a book among the ones by them that I have put time into reading over 25 years ago.
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
I made mine dimmly flash for maybe a month, I had maximum static charge when I took of my jacket and entered the house. Over a month it would not be the cap, it was a HD cfl if I remember right.
Doug, I agree with you. I've see plenty of flash "Laboratories (UL) has just released its f "Some timers rely on a connection to neutral through the bulb and so pass a tiny current through the bulb, charging the capacitors in the electronic ballast. They may not work with a CFL connected, unless an incandescent bulb is also connected. They may also cause the CFL to flash when off. This can also be true for illuminated wall switches and motion sensors"
-- Bobby G.
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