TGDaily - GE touts hybrid Halogen-CFL light bulb

[rjluna2]

Hey check this article out.  I may considered buying this bulb once it hit the market.

GE touts hybrid Halogen-CFL light bulb

Now, I wonder if this be plain old self ballasted CFL connected with the halogen bulb

[Jace the Gull]

Someone is really reading my mind because I actually thought of this idea my self SERIOUSLY!

[SeanB~1]

So what will be the mechanism that kills this one at EOL? Will the halogen capsule fail ( likely as it will suffer a large number of switching cycles without a long runtime to complete the halogen cycle) or will the discharge side fail first. My bet is on the electronics failing before either one, seeing as it is a fully enclosed unit.

At last GE has made a small standby discharge lamp........

[Medved]

Bauhaus (large DYI chain) sell this concept here more then 5 years, but not much successfully - they are very expensive.

[Silverliner14B]

I don't think it will be that successful just a novelty. Additonally TCP now makes CFLs that warm up real fast like in seconds or so.

[Jace the Gull]

I bet if in a multiple lamp fixture....controlled with one switch.....each of the lamp may turn off the halogen in a little bit different timing like the programmed start turns on a bit differently!

[Medved]

@Jace: I think the same. It would be directly controlled by the temperature (what is technically correct), but due to piece-to-piece ballast output power variations the time, when it reach the temperature would differ. And on these cheap ballasts the power tend to vary easily +/-20%, what is not as much from the light output perception, but quite a lot when it come to internal temperature rise...

[Adderall]

I don't think it will be that successful just a novelty. Additonally TCP now makes CFLs that warm up real fast like in seconds or so.

But do they have the output maintenance of an amalgam lamp at high temp and cycle durability of true programmed start CFLs? This type of hybrid lamp is already commercialized by Panasonic.  GE often have products made for them, so maybe these could even be Panasonic?

[A_lights]

I have had the same idea as jace way before now, I wonder what would happen if the cfl part failed ......would it just light the halogen ? Or would the halogen get too hot and cause the ballast to die ?
 I'm going to get 2 of these when they come out and compare them SidE by side

[Medved]

I think what the ballast does is not much important, if it does not influence the halogen functionallity.
But i guess it would have to shut it down anyway, as the halogen would heat it too much to cause severe overheats and fire...
In i'm affraid, then the severe overheat would be the frequent EOL of these creations...

[dor123]

Lecui Italy also makes a hybrid halogen CFLs under their Gemini Permium range of CFLs.
I think that this technology is a piece of junk.
The lamp will be much more expensive and complicated while its lifetime will be even shorter then the usual 8,000 hours of instant start CFLs, since there is much more components in the ballast, the halogen lamp can severe overheating the ballast and in place that the lamp operates for a brief amout of time, the energy saving willn't be realised, since only the halogen lamp will be on.
There is much better solution, to get rid of the run-up time of the CFLs: by using an amalgam in the following mothed: Two amalgams, one as the main amalgam on the cold spot, and one on the electrodes.
This mothed completely eliminates the run-up time of the CFL, because the mercury evaporated from the run-up amalgam in less then the time required for a tungsten filament to warm up.
My Hyundai/Semicom Lexis TEVA/HY Amalgam operates in this manner.
Video of it switched on at full brightness here.