Modifying a CFL..

MercyEternity

Captain, LOL I am not going to pretend like I understand much about a CFL bulb except I know that it gets very warm quickly and that they are really cost efficient. I asked everyone in the store if they knew how to wire the non-ballasted large wattage CFL's and none of them knew how. My concern was that the large ballasted bulbs are very heavy although if the ballast gets very warm as well and makes sound then the self-ballasted maybe wiser. I notice it states that the bulbs contain mercury so I have not attempted to open one. I also read a blog online from a man who swore he would call contamination control in his area if he ever broke one LOL. The bulb package always states they will last 9 years or 10,000 hours but has anybody been able to prove this statement? I do believe they will last longer than most bulbs in general but 10,000 hours!

CaptainStoner

It's only the tubes that contain mercury. They're sealed. Nevertheless, mercury is pretty nasty stuff and even I only open bulbs outside, and wrapped in a bag It's only an issue if you break the tube. Dunno why that man said he'd call contamination control, there's less mercury in a CFL than there is in an old school mercury thermometer. A lot less. He's just suffering from colonic verbalese. You wouldn't want to be inhaling the mercury vapour, but in a few mins of atmosphere, it will dissipate.

That being said, unless you're competent with electronics, you don't want to be messing around with integrated bulbs. It is important to use the correct wiring etc.

The tubes in the CFL will last to their rated hours, on average. It's the ballasts that usually fail.

The lamps you were looking at should have some markings on the pins, or on the mogul socket(if that's what i think it is. diff names here). These will either correspond with some markings on the ballast, or the ballast will have wiring instructions. Don't place any store in hardware shop workers. If such people are the same there as they are here, in the UK, it's a pay peanuts, get monkeys dealio. They're just shop assistants. "would you like some paint with that?"

The point of my previous reply was to say it plain isn't worth buying non-ballast lamps, unless you REALLY want to remote ballast. For say, 4 lamps you're going to be looking at 4 ballasts, or if you're lucky, 2 twin lamp ballasts. These will cost enough to replace a set of conventional integrated ballast lamps at least 3 times, if not more.

I did my work on this because apart from being a trained electronic engineer, i'm a cheap bastard. People from my county are famed for this lol.
Just stick to screwing conventional integrated lamps into sockets mate, it's a lot less hassle (trust me on this) and they're easier to replace come lamp failure.

MercyEternity

I definitely see what you are saying. I am very anally frugal myself. The regular 100-200 watt CFL bulbs cost about 10 pounds and the ones with the ballast are about 30. I do not know how to find a ballast that works with the bulbs and I will leave it at that. The person in the blog has O.C.D. and sometimes that makes people paranoid about environmental issues. For the most part I enjoy a little O.C.D. because it keeps me organized LOL.

CaptainStoner

Hurm he got banned?

Been away for a while, having computer probs, namely the motherboard on my pc finally deciding it had had enough of my abuse and dying. So i've lost track of things a bit.. Was a bit down the last couple of times i posted. Still am but it's getting annoying now that I do not have a grow on (yet) I even considered some lowryder type stuff to get going.. A good mate has offered me some clones of nirvana AK48, big buddha cheese, and purple wreck (if it turns out to be fem, only one sprouted).. I think the cheese will be too smelly for my setup..I want to run something else through before it, to test my DIY filter/pc fan setup, Sooooo..oooo..o...It looks like AK will be my first strain if i dont go out and buy some seedsman white widow this week.

Have been fiddling around with my final setup CFLs which are 4x30w and 2x25w prolite spirals, the 30w being warm white, the 25s being daylight. Have decided not to remote ballast them unless its getting really hot around them when they're all up and running, it's just too much trouble to make the lamps last a bit longer.. I have another plan coming for later anyway mixing them with HID as an experiment.

So i guess this thread is pretty much dead other than an idea i did have.. If you can get into your lamps, push the ballast and tube out of the way to get to the conical base of the lamp.. Drill some holes in the plastic to act as cooling.. blow a lil pc fan across the bulbs and it'll probably have the same effect as remote ballasting them.

Thanks for the input and comments, and warm welcome to the site, folks, I'll be posting around when i can get on the laptop, till i get my diary going for you all to have a bloody good laugh at :D

CS