I know as any ballasted light goes bad it flickers, that’s not the problem.
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Originally had CFLs in a basement that opens outside by way of storm cellar entry so figured they might be too cold to fire correctly. Still not the case. I swapped bulbs from one fixture to another, old bulbs for new, fixtures, and interchanged regular incandescent in some sockets. I discovered I simply can’t have all CFL bulbs, there needs to be at least one incandescent on or one or more of the CFLs will flicker.
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I have two other apartments in this house and now one tenant asked me today to check a flickering light out. Sure enough it was a CFL. Swapped it with an incandescent-fine. I don’t know how long she had been using that bulb but she says she tried others.
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Are CFL ballast just too sensitive and are indicating line voltage irregularities or something else?
Replies
Sorry, shameless promote.
I've never seen a problem such as you describe, but it's possible that with a whole bunch of CFLs on a circuit they could sort of oscillate due to the voltage coupling that would occur between them.
A different brand of CFL might eliminate the problem. Or mixing brands.
FWIW I have a number of cfl's and I have no problem except in the carport. They are on a photocell/motion/timer switch. I assume there is something the cfl's don't like about the switch.
Great point to bring up, I neglected to mention that scenario. All my CFLs in the basement are in fact also on photo cells. But oddly too the one CFL on my porch that is outside in the cold and also on a photo cell dosen't seem to be affected by this phenomena. Difference there I think is the number or lack of CFLs that are simultaneously powered on that circuit. I'm leaning to the oscillating current theory.
The effect of the motion sensors on these bulbs would be interesting to get an answer on too. In my case they are a timed switch. Motion detected-light on for 5,10,15,or 20 mins.-off. I wouldn't think the cell is inline with power for that on period to act as a resistor.
It may be that having a large CFL load on a photocell is what does it. The CFL load will not appear continuous but will switch on and off rapidly, and that would not provided an ideal load for the photocell, which likely contains an SCR switch inside.
Conscience is the still, small voice which tells a candidate that what he is doing is likely to lose him votes. --Anonymous
What Dan said. In fact, if you read the packaging on photocell sockets it says for incandescent use only.Scott.Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”
For any CFL controlled by a dimmer or a photocell, you may have various problems. "Dimmable" CFLs are available, at a premium price, which do work with these devices. I have found only a couple of dimmable CFLs at the local home centers so you may need to order them on-line. Amazon.com among other outlets carry them.