Re: A little more on Fluorescent Lamps

[P3D Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxxxxxx>]

John Vala wrote:
> And as far as "flicker" goes; Eric, you really didnt mean that when you
> said
> "the diffusion material tends to mitigate the flicker", did you?  Flicker is
> flicker,
> its a temporal/intensity thing.


Disclaimer/Warning: I am not a scientist, nor do I play one on TV. The information I'm 
passing along is my limited comprehension of what various lamp engineers and 
commercial/broadcast lighting designers have conveyed to me over the years. My 
undergraduate science courses and the ravages of time have not left me with enough of an 
understanding of these matters to dealve into them from anything more than a users point of 
view.

In plain english, I'm no Einstein. (Most of you have arrived at this conclusion on your 
own.) That being said:

Regarding flicker:

- Not everyone perceives it, peripherally or otherwise. And of those who do, not everyone 
is bothered by it.
- For those who do/are... "they" tell me that flicker is a function of intensity and 
frequency. We've covered that high frequency ballasts, if available, should eliminate the 
problem.
- regarding intensity, "they" tell me that "hot spots" tend to exagerate the effect. This 
is where diffusion helps.
- Also: I've had one engineer tell me that some diffusion materials actually flouresce to a 
very small degree, and so act to buffer flicker. He says its measurable. He might be wrong. 
I have a suspicion I will find out shortly... 8)

Regarding spectral output: As John Vala states, I'm told that at this point color 
corrected flourescents do in fact have output across the visible spectrum. I've haven't 
seen the curves, but the engineers who have tell me it's all there...

The parrot has squawked. 8)


Eric G.
egoldste@xxxxxx


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