12 and 24 volt CFLs

[David HK]

Hello folks.

For your information 12 and 24 volt CFLs are now on sale here in Hong Kong. They are made in China. Cost in the shop is HK$80 which is about US$10.25.

I will obtain further details about Watts and post later.

For your information I have contacted the local Phillips office here to ascertain if they will produce a 48 volt CFL for the RE market in due course. I will post the reply later.

It seems to me that if 48 volt CFLs were available that would make an important impact on the way that homes can be planned for RE use. It would cut out the need for a number of inverters and the CFLs could be run direct from the battery bank on 12, 24 or 48 volts - highly convenient - and useful to offset against the capital cost and losses associated with inverters.

Any comments or opinions?

David HK

[drdongle]

You got my vote for 48 volt CFL's!!

[coldspot]

Humm,.....

I learned how to build 12VDC ones from battery powered dollar store ones here last summer.

Costed about $2.10 less wire and soldering it up, are about 7watts X 2 for them.

Since then everybody that has seen them wanted their own and I said good luck, I could only pick up about 20 units and that only makes 10 sets.

Did have to sell one set to girlfriends brother thats letting me build a shed/shop at his place. Only charged him $3.00. And he broke it with-in a day.

but, he was able to re-solder and re-think about hanging them from the wires because when you are trying to find a light in the dark the switching can be very harder than you think you are pulling. LOL

[desertcoyote]

The 24V ones I got from solar sales and manufactured in Montana work great!!!, I like the 5000K type, however most experts say that the 3500K give the best CRI. I like the blueish ambience. They have worked great, no failers (exept for my ability to drop them or try and screw them in via holding the bulb) even in the cold outdoor shed. So as for the electronics man-hours-factored in china, the bergy seems ok but the crap toys are optimized for cheapness, it makes me what to puuuuk, blaa!, blaaa!, dollars in the toylet.