Everything about making your home eco-friendly!
Dimmable CFL bulbs are a specially designed type of compact florescent light which is made to work specifically on a dimming circuit. These bulbs work by allowing you to reduce the amount of energy which is used and dim the lighting in a room for both practical purposes and to save energy.
A practical advantage of a dimmable compact florescent is that you can save money on electricity because they use less power which means that they produce less heat and light. Reducing power to a Compact Fluorescent bulb which it not designed to work specifically on a dimming circuit can make it burn out by not allowing enough heat to get to the filament.
CFL’s use ballasts to power the bulb. When CFL’s were first invented and sold the ballast which was used for them was not as efficient as today’s electronic types, which made them impossible to actually dim the light. Today we have electronic ballasts which are much more efficient, save money on electricity and can control how much power is actually sent to the light bulb.
Compact florescent bulbs are also much more efficient than conventional halogen lights and can produce as much as four times the light per wattage of electricity they use, comparatively. This not only makes them an eco-friendly light source but a great bulb to actually illuminate where you live. They also produce more light than LED bulbs do per wattage they use!
When CFL’s are powered on there is a flicker of light which can be seen. This usually happens for up to 60 seconds after power is turned on. This flickering of light is a normal process for a CFL yet if it persists for more than 60 seconds it shows that power is not being received properly by the bulb.
Correctly dimming a CFL will make the light last for the proper lifespan. Though if the light is not being powered properly (and it is flickering for longer than a minute as talked about above) then the lifespan of the dimmable CFL will be affected.
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