|
27 Jul 11 |
End of experiment 14, start of new
experiment 15 |
Read here.
For the first time a Longlife model "made in Germany" , rated
500000 switching withstand, goes into the battle against the "made in
China" Duluxstar. |
|
10 Jul 11 |
New paper on environmental relase
ofmercury frombroken CFL's |
Read here
(hat tip: Pierre Lutgen) |
|
25 Jun 11 |
Problem in counting the switchings in
exp.#14 |
Look here |
|
27 Apr 11 |
Start of experiment 14 with two Osram
Duluxstar CFLs |
Both rated at 20000 switching withstand! |
|
15 Mar 11 |
End of experiment #11
Start of experiment #12 at approx. 09:00 UTC comparing a Philips 14W Genie
CFL with a ECO-Energy 20 W twisted type CFL |
Philips CFL blew after 7596 switchings,
Philips Ecoclassic halogen bulb after 72221! Quite a difference! |
|
16 Dec 10 |
1. Philips CFL blew
2. Bundesumweltamt warns for mercury risk |
see "comments" section |
|
04 Dec 10 |
Experiment #11 started. |
Two Philips lamps enter the battlefield |
|
11 Nov 10 |
Experiment #10 finished. |
The Osram CFL blew after 98287
switchings, exceeding the rated switching withstand of 20000 by far. |
|
05 Nov 10 |
The former students of "Promotion 1978"
visted (among other places) the Blow-my-Bulb boot.
Click on picture showing F. Massen speaking with well known
journalist/physicist
Ranga
Yogeshwar |
 |
|
11 Sep 10 |
Partial end of experiment 10 |
Classic bulb blew after 21790 switchings |
|
10 Sep 10 |
The blog
Wattsupwiththat has a discussion about CFL's. I added a short
comment pointing to our bmb.lcd.lu site. |
|
|
04 and 05 Aug 10 |
End of experiment 9 and start of
experiment 10 |
New:
Summary
of all experiments |
07Jun10
Problem with counting 1 EUR CFL switchings solved |
Read details
here. |
|
|
Experiments #6 and #7 using both the same
cheap ECTRON CFL terminated. |
Survival time in the ON state ~107
hours only (10 days on the test bench) |
Next test will use the ultimate cheap 1
Euro CFL. |
|
New experiment #6 started 04May10 at
16:00 UTC |
Guy Schintgen and Francis Massen made a
major modification to the electric circuit: the switch counters are now
driven by a pure optical way, no more resistors in series used. More on
this asap.
Lamps: a very cheap CFL and a Osram 100W halogen bulb. |
We use two dimming kits (assembled by J.
Mootz and F. Massen) which sense the light of the lamps by way of optical
fibers. This solves the
objection of Prof. Siebentritt.
More here. |
|
CF lamps and
UV radiation |
A short paper by F. Massen on the
dangers of UV radiation emitted by CFL's (02Nov09) |
No danger in normal conditions of usage.
No need to launch scary reports. |
|
Experiment #5 still continuing (02Nov09) |
The halogen lamp being dead, exp. #5
will continue up to the end of the year.
The expensive Osram DULUX seems to have an eternal life! |
A major modification of the experimental
setup will be made after the end of exp. #5. We will try to use an optical
switch to activate the counters, getting rid of the resistors mentioned in
Prof. Siebentritt's comment. |
|
A reply to a comment of Prof. Siebentritt |
by F. Massen |
Reply to a comment at
http://aphyl.lgl.lu
on BMB |
|
Power
Factor and Harmonics |
A new research paper by F. Massen, J.
Mootz and C. Baumann on measurements of power factor and "dirtieness"
of CFL's |
version 1.0: 23 Aug 2009
See "Science" chapter! |
|
Apparent, active and reactive power
problems |
We have a nice paper (in German) in the
SCIENCE section on these specific power problems caused by
non-sinusoidal current flow. Hat tip to Guy Schintgen for this info.
Guy, a very experienced electrical engineer and a specialist in
over-voltage and lightning protection problems has agreed to join the
BMB team. We welcome this new member! |
Three of us are preparing a small study
on these power problems, using real measurements done in our lab. |
|
End of experiment #4 and start of
experiment #5 |
The second Osram TWIST blew the 22May09 |
Experiment 5 continues with Osram halogen
lamp and reuses the expensive 30 EUR Osram CFL that survived exp. 1. The CFL
counter has been reset to 0, the bulb-halogen counter continues at its state
(> 16000).
More here! |
|
Something to chuckle... |
 |
from
GOREDEARTH.com |
|
End of experiment #3 and start of
experiment #4 |
The Osram Twist CFL blew after only 6
days of operation (switching count less than 4200) |
The lamp has been replaced by a new one,
and experiment #4 started 06May09 at 15:47 local time.
Counter for halogen lamp is 4381; this lamp of exp.#3 will continue into
exp.#4. |
|
Start of experiment #3 |
This time thebattle will be between a
Osram twisted CFL and a Osram halogen lamp |
see here. |
|
End of experiment #2 |
Experiment #2 terminates the 30 April
2009; the incandescent bulb blew after 42010 switchings (starting 2nd
March 2009). It survived the Ikea CFL by about
9000 switchings or at least 4 days. |
Experiment #3 starting very soon! |
|
Marcel Thilmany passed away. |
Marcel Thilmany, our technician of the
computing department and a strong helping hand on the BmB project, passed
away the 26th April 2009. He will be deeply missed for his kindness,
courage and never failing help. Read obituary
here. |
 |
|
VIP's visit BlowmyBulb |
During the inauguration of the LCD
(24Apr09) two ministers (Claude Wiseler, minister of Bâtiments Publics
and Mady Delvaux-Stehres, minister of Education) visited the BmB boot.
From left to right: Francis Massen,
Director Robert Bohnert, Minister Mady Delvaux-Stehres, minister
Claude Wiseler (dark suit). |
 |
|
Experiment #2: IKEA dies and resurrects
and dies and... |
The Ikea CFL continues to behave in a
very funny way: it dies and goes dark, but continues to increase the
counter due to a current spike |
I think this lamp should be declared
officially dead! |
| Experiment
#2: IKEA CFL blows first! |
Dead occurred between 07 and 16 April |
Read
here
for more details. |
| Experiment
#2 still running (04Apr09) |
Started at 02Mar09, both el-cheapo's
survived 24241 switchings... not bad! |
Mismatch
of 1 between counters... spooky! |
| Sparlampen
Schlussbericht |
A 2003 report from the Swiis Agency on
Efficient Energy Use |
Look
at the Science
chapter! |
| Inside
a 230VAC white LED lamp |
Article
by F. Massen |
White
LED lamp surgery! |
| A
new article by Rod Elliott (ESP) |
Should there be a ban on incandescent
lamps? |
See
comments
section. |
| Experiment
#2 started today 02Mar09 at 16:00 local time |
Competition between two low cost
models:
20W CFL from IKEA and 100W bulb E-Lektro |
Read
more here! |
| Experiment
#1 terminated today.02Mar09 |
The 30 EURO CFL survived the
competition! |
The
100W Osram Softone incandescent bulb died after about 35000 switching
cycles during the 1st March 2009. The expensive top-model CFL survived and
is declared the winner of this first round. Read more here! |
| CFL
lamp starts to blacken at the bottom of 3 tubes... |
Total
switch count is now 25792, experiment runs since 35 days. |
 |
Online
chat with EU member of parlament Dr. Peter Liese (12Feb09)
Home page here. |
I
participated today in a chat on the upcoming ban of incandescent lamps in
Europe.(hat typ to yol)
Regarding incandescent bulbs, Dr. Liese has nothing new or original to
say. He wants to lengthen the German "Ausstieg" from nuclear
energy (a positive point) but most other comments are "du déjà
vu". I said that the unilateral forcing of CFL's makes life difficult
for more modern technologies like LED's and OLED's , but did not get an
answer on that point. He repeats that using the warmth of an incandescent
lamp is an inefficient way to heat, but seems to ignore findings that
suggest prefering old bulbs in cold conditions. (see here). |
 |
| Blow
my Bulb today (09Feb09) in the press |
Short comment on BmB in
Luxembourg's biggest news paper, the "Luxemburger Wort" |
 |
