CFL is an acronym for Compact Fluorescent Lamp. As the name suggests, CFL is a miniature form of florescent lamps. They were meant to replace incandescent lamps. The invention of CFL has become purely possible because of PCB technology. The size of the lamps have been reduced considerably by curling them or folding them. The ballast size has also been reduced through miniaturization of the circuit by PCB technology. The resultant is a energy efficient small CFL that operates at par with fluorescent lamps.
Working of a CFL
The most important part of a CFL is an electronic ballast. There are two types of CFL: integrated and non integrated. A non integrated CFL requires an external ballast and an integrated CFL is an in-built ballast. Reducing the size of the ballast to the extent of fitting it inside the CFL has become entirely possible because of PCB technology.
A ballast circuit of CFL consists of transformers, rectifiers, diodes, capacitors and transistors. The circuit is miniaturized and the components are fabricated on a small PCB. The transformer steps down the voltage and the rectifier converts the AC into DC and a filtering capacitor is used to filter the ripples. A small inverter circuit again converts this DC to AC with considerable frequency boost up to reduce flicker.
Advantages
- The CFL is efficient and results in considerable power saving.
- Due to high frequency of AC used, flicker is considerably reduced.
- The start up time is very less.
- The weight and size of the lamps are small with regard to the illumination levels they provide.
Disadvantages
- In the efforts for miniaturizing the circuit used in CFLs, the Power Factor improvement is low. Hence these can affect the power quality seriously in case they are used in industrial establishments.
- The disposal of CFL is tricky because of the presence of poisonous mercury. This can have environmental and health issues.
An overview
The CFL is so small and gives considerable amount of illumination is an technological marvel. Even greater marvel is how the size of ballast has been reduced to fit it into a casing to accommodate the size of CFL in comparable levels to incandescent lamps. CFL technology is a transition from electrical to electronic technology.
