All Flourexcent Future

[acdcelectric]

President Bush has signed into law a bill that bans incandescent lamps in the near future, Only flurescent lamps and CFL's will be installed in new construction in a couple of years. In California title 24 already has the same provisions.

Flourescents are inherently noisy, generating a huge amount of RFI (not to mention the UV leakage, and that they contain mercury and if they break, you have a HAZMAT conditon in your house...sigh).

I have already had noise problems in UPB installs using a pair 8 Ft shop fixtures in a shared lighting ciruit that passed through a garage. Line noise was so high that a PIM installed on the same circkuit could not find the devices unless the flourescents were turned off. Links sometimes were recognized, sometimes not.

UPB is my favorite lighting system. I just wonder if it will be a viable install when the new laws take effect.

Any Electrical Engineers have any input on this?

 

[upstatemike]

President Bush has signed into law a bill that bans incandescent lamps in the near future, Only flurescent lamps and CFL's will be installed in new construction in a couple of years. In California title 24 already has the same provisions.

I have seen this in a number of articles recently and I still don't understand the issue. If you buy a new house where the builder has put in CFLs then just swap them out after you move in... I don't see a problem unless they stop selling incandescent bulbs, which is not likely considering that CFL equivalents don't exist for many incandescent applications. This legislation sounds like an empty gesture that can easily be ignored.

 

[LightenUP]

While we are talking about it, LEDs are not too far from being a significant player. I wonder how some of the LED drivers produced in mass will impact powerline stuff also.

To be quite honest, the way technology is increasing, who's to say that by the time that law is implemented there won't be something better than UPB, or by then UPB may go through another generation to be able to exist with that type of noise.


In my office I have three switches controlling flouresants in the same room. The way the fixtures are lined up is every other one is chained together per switch. There is one switch, when on, generates noise that my SPIM sees. Not major actually, doesn't impact GENII but does impact GENI. If I turn the switch off, no more noise.

The other issue is, I went to each device one at a time and disconnected them from power. The noise never went away, I am not able to pinpoint which fixture out of nine is actually causing the issue.

They are all the same fixtures and there are approx. 35 in the room. Only one switch actually has the noise..

I gave up looking for it 'cause of time and it's not effecting a client. Also the new GenII makes it kinda a mute point.


I'm a big beliver in PCS' approach to noise as opposed to filteration. Ease of installation is where PLC is going to go anyways, for the end user to get involved in their own automation for their own home. I know that's not great for all of us but inner home networks will be a part of the new electrical designs very soon.

Hopefully, we will be able to take advantage of these technologies before they become completely simplified for the hobbiest in mind.