Do colored CFs exist?

[Paul Ciszek]

Does anyone produce CF bulbs with colored phosphor? Sure, some places
sell dipped CF bulbs, but that would be wasteful--a bulb with a single
color phosphor could emit all of its light as a particular color, much
like an LED.

 

[Victor Roberts]

Does anyone produce CF bulbs with colored phosphor? Sure, some places
sell dipped CF bulbs, but that would be wasteful--a bulb with a single
color phosphor could emit all of its light as a particular color, much
like an LED.

I think the market for such lamps would be too small. I
also don't know if there are any phosphors, other than the
three colors used for the tri-band system, that would
survive the high UV intensity of CFLs. If such lamps were
made that would have to be rather expensive compared to
normal high production volume CFLs.

4-foot T12 lamps are (or were) available in a variety of
colors, but the sales volume for these colored lamps was
always very small and they operated in a relative low UV
intensity environment. Even today, with the shift to T8
and T5 lamps, I think that most lamps with non-white
phosphor blends are made only in T12 diameter.

--
Vic Roberts
http://www.RobertsResearchInc.com
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[Victor Roberts]

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 03:28:54 -0700,

Somebody in America was selling 9W PL-S style lamps in red, green and
blue last year, but I haven't seen them listed recently. Ryness (I
think that's how you spell it) in Victoria street, London sell the 18W
spiral ones in the same colours, they've got them on display in the
shop window.

Do you know if these use white phosphor with a color filter,
or a colored phosphor?

--
Vic Roberts
http://www.RobertsResearchInc.com
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[TKM]

I think the market for such lamps would be too small. I
also don't know if there are any phosphors, other than the
three colors used for the tri-band system, that would
survive the high UV intensity of CFLs. If such lamps were
made that would have to be rather expensive compared to
normal high production volume CFLs.

4-foot T12 lamps are (or were) available in a variety of
colors, but the sales volume for these colored lamps was
always very small and they operated in a relative low UV
intensity environment. Even today, with the shift to T8
and T5 lamps, I think that most lamps with non-white
phosphor blends are made only in T12 diameter.

A second-hand report from a product manager at TCP (a large manufacturer of
CFLs) indicates that the only CFLs that use colored phosphors are the older
low-wattage "twin tube" types. The others are filtered, probably for the
reason that Vic indicates.

Terry McGowan

 

[Victor Roberts]

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:37:17 -0700,

Better be careful with a term like 'white phosphor'. I take it you
mean one which emits white light, rather than one here the powder, and
therefore the lamp itself, is white when unilluminated.

You are correct. I should have said a slightly yellow
phosphor that when combined with the blue light emitted by
the excited mercury atoms will result in "white" light being
emitted by the lamp.

The spiral
ones which I've seen here have a phosphor which emits coloured light,
with no filter.

How can you tell? Do the lamps look white or colored when
they are off?

I think the PL-S type ones which were on Ebay were
the same, but I'm not absolutely certain. The coloured spiral lamps
from BLTdirect are a white phosphor with a coloured filter layer.

--
Vic Roberts
http://www.RobertsResearchInc.com
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