Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with fluorescent

Inexpensive fluorescent lantern/lamp with 12 volt option?

ae4rv — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:02:09 -0800

Fluorescent lantern suggestions for emergency home use? We've endured a total of 14 days without electricity in the past six months due to a wind storm and an ice storm. I have a portable 12V battery with "cigarette lighter" ports, a powered USB port and built-in LED floodlight, and of course, several flashlights. But next time I want a fluorescent lantern to compliment the battery. Trouble is, it's very hard to find a lantern that can also be powered by an external 12V source - most use internal D cells and that's it. Coleman makes a rechargeable one that can be charged (and presumably used) with an external 12V source, but I don't want to introduce the inefficiencies that I associate with the charging circuit. And rechargeable batteries typically have a shelf-life. And it's a little 'spensive.

Any suggestions? Don't want to spend too much...<$25.

PS: Should I just buy a 12V fluorescent bulb with built-in ballast and rig it up to a regular lamp with a homemade power adapter? Also, hacking an eight D-cell lantern to work with an external source has occurred to me, but I want to avoid that if possible.

Why do "specialty"-shaped compact fluorescent bulbs take longer to come to full brightness than CFL bulbs in the more standard helical shape?

Juffo-Wup — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:05:19 -0800

Why do "specialty"-shaped compact fluorescent bulbs take longer to come to full brightness than CFL bulbs in the more standard helical shape? Having recently moved into a new house, I bought two different kinds of n:vision 14 Watt compact fluorescent light bulbs. One kind starts out quite bright when turned on, but the other is quite dim when it turns on and takes 30-90 seconds to reach full brightness.

The bulbs that brighten quickly are the standard CFL bulbs that are in the shape of a helix. The specific bulb I'm referring to is this one.

The bulbs that take longer to get bright are these A19-shaped bulbs.

From examining them, it appears to me that the A19 shaped bulbs are simply the regular type of bulb with a plastic shell around them. But if this were the case, I don't see why the A19 bulbs would take longer to reach full brightness.

I bought four of each type of bulb and the same thing happens with all eight. I know that colder temperatures can make CFL bulbs take longer to brighten up, but none of these bulbs are in a warmer place than any of the others.

For what it's worth, I have also noticed that globe shaped CFL bulbs at others' houses seem to take longer to get bright than regular CFL bulbs although I don't know what brand/etc those were.

Any ideas?

Those fancy markerboards on "ReGenesis"

gentle — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 10:40:19 -0800

On the TV show ReGenesis, the scientists constantly scribble with markers on big, transparent boards — here's a clip, and here's another. I am guessing that they are using fluorescent wet-erase markers, perhaps in combination with a black-light lamp to make the paint visible in such low light. Where can I buy a setup like this?

CFL - Cold, fugly luminescence

metajc — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:35:58 -0800

Are there some specific CFL models that will light just like my old soft incandescent light bulbs? I bought a bunch of CFL bulbs but my girlfriend won't let me turn them on because they look kind of heinous -- blue and pretty fluorescent like a university lab or the morgue.

I / we like that warm, yellow-white, incandescent glow of 40 and 60 watt GE bulbs. You know what I mean. Anybody had any luck finding a certain brand / wattage that mimics that particularly well?

Large fluorescent tube broken. How do I ensure I don't die of mercury poisoning?

rainygrl716 — Sun, 04 May 2008 23:07:13 -0800

Fluorescent tube (large one) broke in kitchen. I am freaking out now and didn't follow proper procedures to clean it up. Am I going to get sick and die of mercury poisoning? I read on here recently of a woman who broke a compact fluorescent tube in her bedroom. Well tonight I ended up breaking one of the large fluorescent tubes in my kitchen. This light hadn't been working (it had burned out) and I was trying to replace it.

It shattered everywhere: in my sink, in my cats bowls, some went on the carpet. Most ended up on the hard kitchen floor. I freaked out and didn't follow proper procedures (vent area, use gloves, etc). I just started cleaning it up with a hand-held broom. Also, when attempting to leave the area, I stepped on some of the glass (it was unavoidable) and small shards went into my foot.

I opened the windows but my apartment gets poor ventilation and there are no windows directly in the kitchen.

I ended up sweeping up all the large glass pieces and removing them from the house. I threw away the cats dishes, all the dirty dishes that had been in the sink at the time, mopped the floor, and took tape to the carpet that is immediately in front of the kitchen. I threw away the broom I used to sweep up the glass as well. I also took some tape to the floor after I was done mopping to help ensure I removed all glass.

This was a Sylvania Fluorescent 40W tube. I am incredibly worried about the mercury exposure and if I did an adequate job of cleaning. Some of the glass fell down the garbage disposal (little pieces of it). Also, I am worried that I may have gotten little shards of the glass in my foot. Should I go to the emergency room? I don't know if I am making too big of a deal out of this.

I did not notice any powdery substance from the broken tube or glass, nor did I see any visible signs of solid mercury. This light hadn't been operational in weeks, so it hadn't been on recently so I don't think the mercury would be in a gaseous state.

I am freaking out here and don't know what else to do to ensure my pets are okay and I am okay. Any advice? Have I created a hazardous living environment?

Make the buzzing stop!

LN — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:17:54 -0800

Help me de-eighties my bathroom lights! I have heinous fluorescent lighting in my bathroom - the long bulbs, drop-ceiling kind of fluorescent lighting. It buzzes and flickers, and just generally makes everything look awful. I'd like to replace it with something more appealing. Hive mind, please make suggestions as to what kind of lighting I can get!

Here are the specifics:
-There is no window in this room. The room is pitch black without some kind of lighting.
-The fluorescents were part of the original house design (early 80's), meaning that there is a foot-high, 6 inch deep gyproc barrier coming down from the ceiling to hold the support rails for the lighting panels. I am not looking to knock this barrier out right now, so any replacement lighting will be "sunken" into this recessed area in the ceiling.
- inside the panels, there is one light fixture, containing two bulbs. This fixture is just the same size as the kind of fluorescent fixtures they use in offices.
-The fixture is "fed" by a single electrical cord coming out of the ceiling, but it's not centred. The electrical cord is in the ceiling near the door, on my right as I look up at the fixture. It's right over the bathroom sink, if that helps any.

Any suggestions on how to de-eighties my bathroom lights would be much appreciated!

(I don't have pics as of yet, I'll post some when I go home tonight.)

A dim question.

eschatfische — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:46:15 -0800

Let's say there are two identical light fixtures, on two identical dimmer switches. One fixture has two 15W dimmer-compatible compact fluorescent lights, the other has two standard 60W incandescent bulbs. The dimmer switches are turned just beyond the "off" position to the "dimmest" position (identical on both dimmers). What will the difference in power utilization be between the two fixtures?

freestanding fluorescent

Infernarl — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:33:59 -0800

Can I make a freestanding fluorescent light fixture like this or this from a regular fluorescent light fixture and bulb? If not how are these made? I really want to make or buy a fluorescent light that sticks out from the ceiling at a 90 degree angle and has no visible wires.

Any advice on continuous fluorescents for video?

MeetCleaverTheatre — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:07:22 -0800

Could anyone please help a fellow videographer out with advice on fluorescent lighting kits? Lengthy extended question is enclosed. Hi gang,

I am in the market to finally buy my own lighting kit (or cobble one together) after nearly a decade of being spoiled by working in a big name studio (with big name lighting and toys). I've gone the guerrilla route before using halogen work lights and after months of melting makeshift barn doors, gels and blowing a bazillion fuses, I'm finally ready to pony up some dough for some basic lighting.

I would really like to go the compact fluorescent route as they're cooler and the bulbs are readily available in my area. The question is how do they look with mini-dv or prosumer dv camcorders? I shoot mainly interviews, talking heads, small product/commercial shoots and educational videos for the medical/law enforcement world so a huge rig doesn't fit the bill. We do a lot of chroma key work as well.

I was looking at this set up first (really...the most I have available to spend at the moment)...but then noticed another online auction seller offering smaller lighting packages at even more desirable prices.

Has anyone out there used continuous fluorescent kits for shooting video? How many watts do you need to get a good looking SD image? Are the kits above worth the money? I would love to hear advice and recs from some of you video pros and guerrilla filmmakers out there.

Thanks a million for your advice and your time!

Blinded by the (fluorescent) office lighting

desjardins — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:41:49 -0800

My cube is as bright as an operating room. Help me save my eyesight and sanity. Over the weekend, the facilities department here saw fit to replace some dusty fluorescent tubes directly over my desk. I also think one must have been missing/broken before, because there's no way it could be this bright from just swapping out dirty tubes. Anyway, I feel like I'm in a torture chamber or an operating room. Is there anything I can do to mitigate this?

Relevant info:
1. It's a very standard 3-sided 8x8 ~~cell~~ cube with an L shaped desk. I can't move the computer to the other corner, because there is a file cabinet in the way.
2. The light is also very standard, what you'd see in most US office buildings or schools. It's a drop ceiling.
3.. Anything I put over the light will be immediately noticed and I'm sure not allowed (this is a big corporation that really limits what you can do - for example, we can't have Firefox, nor coffeemakers).
4. I'm not normally vision-impaired in any way. I don't wear glasses or contacts. The light is not literally blinding me (no glare on my screen), but it's freakin annoying.
5. It's a big hassle to get the facilities department to do anything around here.

Small camera, large fluorescent-lit room.

Dave 9 — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:21:26 -0800

I’m no photographer, but a friend has asked me to use her Canon A610 camera to take a few photos of some kids, who’ll be wearing pageant costumes, in what she says is a large, high-ceilinged, windowless room lit by bright fluorescent lights. I can’t get to the room early and won’t have time to experiment once I’m there. What setting(s) should I use on this camera? (Assume I’ve considered and rejected the possibility of using a different camera or hiring a photographer.) I’d like to be able to give her decently-lit pictures with natural-looking color. Am I wrong in assuming that the little built-in flash would do more harm than good? The obvious choices seem to be Auto, or SCN-Indoors (which claims to set the color balance automatically for tungsten or fluorescent, adjusting the ISO as necessary); but can I do better with custom pre-sets? The Canon has Automatic White Balance, but also offers “Fluorescent” and Fluorescent-H” settings, as well as the ability to set a fixed ISO up to 400. I’d be grateful for your suggestions.

I want the free lunch!

Relly70 — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:48:23 -0800

I want to go! The company is sponsiring "Yes, literally, bring an idea and we’ll buy lunch." However I have no idea to bring! Maybe some of you creative types could help me come up with one! What type of lighting fixture is the world missing? Fixture can be either out door or in door! fluorescent or HID! or if someone had some really cool ideas for LEDs!

Just a general idea or suggest is all I need.

The Aerogarden. How noisy? How hackable? Alternatives?

allterrainbrain — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:27:06 -0800

The Aerogarden. How noisy? How hackable? Any alternatives that are also "easy" enough for my non-specialist friends? I've found a lot of opinions, pro and con. For me, the biggest con is all the proprietary parts you're supposed to keep buying -- from the overpriced seed "pods" to the fact that they've reportedly designed their product so it uses standard fluorescent bulbs but non-standard sockets (so you have to buy expensive bulbs from them, rather than cheap ones from your local hardware store).

One partial solution would be trying to reuse their "pods" with one's own seeds, but the product is new enough that I'm not finding any firsthand accounts of doing this beyond a few vague reports in the "sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't" vein. There are different settings and cycles (for feeding/drip lengths) to match each of the company's seed pods, but I'm not finding info on whether these settings are totally user-configurable or just limited to the factory-programmed settings that fit the company's offerings.

I'm also seeing plenty of reports that it's "noisy" and "very bright," but no specifics. I'd be ultra-grateful for any firsthand descriptions especially of the noise (how frequent, and what type of noise -- pump noise, drip noise, buzz from the fluorescent bulbs...?) And it's marketed as "energy-efficient," but without any info on its power consumption.

I'm good with both plants & gadgets myself, but I need hydroponics systems that can be cared for by non-experts (the various people who'll be subletting my apartment short-term). Other self-contained systems are easy to find by googling hydroponics (the best-looking I've found is the EcoGrower), but none are so foolproof that they include "water me" & "feed me" indicator lights like the Aerogarden, and none include a hood / light source.

My apt. gets full sun from the south (through windows; no way to put pots outdoors) and I'm in the northeast (NYC). I mostly want to grow fruiting plants, esp. cherry tomatoes.

Where's my future-car?

limeonaire — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 13:54:43 -0800

It seems that taillights have evolved rather radically from their humble origins, now featuring LED configurations spanning cars' entire back ends. Why hasn't this kind of innovation been seen with headlights? I thought of a few questions along these lines last night while sitting in the back of a friend's van, watching the headlights around us on the highway.

Specifically:

1. Why don't car manufacturers use fluorescent or LED bulbs (backed by reflective material, just as incandescent bulbs are) in headlights? It seems to me that they'd be just as sturdy as incandescent bulbs, and probably provide brighter light with less energy required.

2. Are there practical reasons why car manufacturers continue to stick to the tried-and-true "two headlights, one on the left, one on the right" configuration, rather than using, say, a centrally mounted light bar? (Think something like the Millennium Falcon's propulsion bar, only on the front of the car and used solely for lighting purposes...) Or is it just convention?

When I discussed this with my friends, we speculated that it could be an issue of redundancy—i.e. if one gets knocked out, you still have one left. But then, I countered, couldn't that be addressed by mounting, say, two or more fluorescent tubes in the "light bar"? Or if fluorescent tubes are too fragile, perhaps multiple tiny white LEDs?

We also speculated that perhaps it was just a design/functionality issue, wherein, say, the grill is a standard air intake area for the engine, and it's easier to keep it there, rather than trying to create a radically new air intake system.

Any ideas which, if any, of these issues have curtailed the introduction of new forms of headlights?

Red goes to ground, right Sparky?

plinth — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 18:53:51 -0800

How to: multiple fluorescent light fixtures on one circuit For a specialty lighting project, I'm backlighting a largish sign such that a single 24" lamp won't do it and a double lamp puts the bulbs too close together.

Can I wire up two 24" single bulb fluorescent fixtures in parallel?

If so, it's just black to black to the switch and then to hot; and white to white to neutral (and of course, ground to the lovely green screw in the fixture), right?

You can assume that I'm scrupulous about wiring, but that nearly all of my experience is either replacing existing wiring or with low-voltage wiring.

How can I make a fluorescent light less bright and more like home?

riverjack — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 22:42:10 -0800

I live in an apartment overseas in China. If any of you have been over here you know how asthetically unpleasing apartments here are: no carpet, dirty white walls, wood furniture with no padding. I'm adjusting to most things fine, but the lighting in my rooms is driving my crazy. Each room is equipped with a long (a little over a meter) white fluorescent bulb. Obviously, I can just not use it at all and just use lamps and such, but I'd rather not buy a bunch of lamps since I'll live here for less than a year. What suggestions do ya'll have for making the lighting nicer on the eyes and more "homey" feeling? I'm up for buying new light bulbs, but please keep recommendations for stuff to things I could find overseas - part of the reason I haven't been able to really decorate is that it's difficult to shop for and bring home decorating stuff to my apartment. Most things I buy need to be able to come home on a bus (another strike against buying a lot of tall lamps) or else I'll have to pay someone to deliver. What other suggestions do you have for sprucing up the place? I'm not allowed to paint or change the flooring. Ideally anything I do can easily be taken down and thrown away/given away when I leave. Also, my walls are concrete with a thin layer of plaster and white paint, so it's difficult to hang things. Getting a nail to go in straight without causing cracks in the wall and plaster chips is almost a miracle. Any websites dealing with these kinds of decorating issues would be great as well. Tall order, I know. Good luck.

Fluorescent light problem:

cardboard — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 08:16:30 -0800

Fluorescent light problem:

I have a fluorescent light fixture in my bathroom using two, different-sized, doughnut-shaped bulbs. Lately it's been taking a long time to turn on (15-30 minutes) after I throw the switch in the morning. If the fixture has been running for a while, this warm-up time seems to go down. Does this sound like a ballast problem (and thus my landlord's problem), or a light-bulb problem (mine)? I'm leaning to ballast because the lights look fine once they start, but I haven't been able to find the same symptoms on the half dozen fluorescent lighting websites I've looked at so far.