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Flourescent lights humming? Chad 12-18-2006
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Posted by Chad on December 18, 2006, 10:58 pm



I just put 3 flourescent replacement lights in my bathroom (shaped like a
spiral, meant to replace the incandescent bulb in the same socket).

When I turn on the power there is a very audible hum. I know that
flourescent's can hum but did not think it would be this bad. Is the
humming a possible indactor of another problem? I can't have a bulb that
makes this sound in a small bathroom.



Posted by Chad on December 18, 2006, 11:06 pm



>
> I just put 3 flourescent replacement lights in my bathroom (shaped like a
> spiral, meant to replace the incandescent bulb in the same socket).
>
> When I turn on the power there is a very audible hum. I know that
> flourescent's can hum but did not think it would be this bad. Is the
> humming a possible indactor of another problem? I can't have a bulb that
> makes this sound in a small bathroom.



I forgot to say I needed silent lights where all is calm and all is bright.

badampa



Posted by Don Klipstein on December 18, 2006, 11:40 pm


>
>I just put 3 flourescent replacement lights in my bathroom (shaped like a
>spiral, meant to replace the incandescent bulb in the same socket).
>
>When I turn on the power there is a very audible hum. I know that
>flourescent's can hum but did not think it would be this bad. Is the
>humming a possible indactor of another problem? I can't have a bulb that
>makes this sound in a small bathroom.

The spirals normally do not do this humming, bit I have found a couple
that did. One was a 27 watt model and the other was a 30 watt model.

I have also known heat buildup problems in some fixtures with higher
wattages, and even some complaints of early failures of 42 watt ones
operated base-up apparently resulting from heat. I also saw a possibly
heat-related failure of a 24 watt spiral, and those have been replaced by
23 watt ones due to improvements in efficiency of the electronics.

In addition, I have seen a slight trend of color of spirals being
slightly harsher with higher wattages as wattage increases past 23 watts.

As a result of all of this data, I might suggest to use 23 watt ones if
you were using a higher wattage. 23 watt spirals have light output a
little over halfway from "75 watts" to "100 watts" of "standard
incandescent" "equivalence".

The next step down in wattage in spirals is the 18-20 watt range, with
18 or 19 now being the norm here. Those have light output about that of
75 watt 120V "standard incandescents".

- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)

Posted by Chad on December 19, 2006, 12:06 am



>>
>>I just put 3 flourescent replacement lights in my bathroom (shaped like a
>>spiral, meant to replace the incandescent bulb in the same socket).
>>
>>When I turn on the power there is a very audible hum. I know that
>>flourescent's can hum but did not think it would be this bad. Is the
>>humming a possible indactor of another problem? I can't have a bulb that
>>makes this sound in a small bathroom.
>
> The spirals normally do not do this humming, bit I have found a couple
> that did. One was a 27 watt model and the other was a 30 watt model.
>
> I have also known heat buildup problems in some fixtures with higher
> wattages, and even some complaints of early failures of 42 watt ones
> operated base-up apparently resulting from heat. I also saw a possibly
> heat-related failure of a 24 watt spiral, and those have been replaced by
> 23 watt ones due to improvements in efficiency of the electronics.
>
> In addition, I have seen a slight trend of color of spirals being
> slightly harsher with higher wattages as wattage increases past 23 watts.
>
> As a result of all of this data, I might suggest to use 23 watt ones if
> you were using a higher wattage. 23 watt spirals have light output a
> little over halfway from "75 watts" to "100 watts" of "standard
> incandescent" "equivalence".
>
> The next step down in wattage in spirals is the 18-20 watt range, with
> 18 or 19 now being the norm here. Those have light output about that of
> 75 watt 120V "standard incandescents".
>
> - Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)

Thanks for the info. These are 23 watt bulbs (100 watt equivalent), brand
is "Bright Effects" item# 153972. I tried in a diffrent socket and all for
bulbs (was a 4-pack) still have the hum.

Will have to take them back to Lowe's. I hope they don't give me any
problems becase the package is mangled.

Sounds like you are saying that going with a lower wattage might reduce the
hum. I like the brightness though so I might try another brand and see if I
get lucky since you and others say that a hum is not typical.

Thanks for the reply.



Posted by Don Klipstein on December 19, 2006, 1:13 am



(To condense greatly to edit for space, he got 23 watt ones while my
response before I knew this was to go for lower wattages such as 23
watts or less)

I aslo advise that results will gnenerally be better if:

1. The CFLs are of one of the "Big 3" major brands. They have a lot to
lose from bad products having negative impact on their reputations. These
are GE, Philips and Sylvania (in the USA).

2. The CFLs have an "Energy Star" rating/qualification. This means that
the CFLs in question have achieved good energy efficiency and good usage
when used as directed. The color is either in some specifiable way
reasonably incandescent-like or "adequately" described as being a
"specialty color" (my words) such as "3500K" (a whiter shade of "warm
white") or sunlight-like or daylighht-like. Electrical and functional
reliability have to be reasonably at least half-decent (my words).

- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)

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