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julesstoop
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Leiden, the Netherlands
 
2008-05-06, 16:14

Don't forget that when you decide to go with 12V Halogen, the transportation loss is much higher (lower voltages need more current to transport the same amount of energy, because of Ohm's law, hence the need for thick cables as pointed out by Bryson). So any efficiency you might gain from the higher light yield, maybe lost in the cable.

A.f.a.i.k. fluorescent light requires very high voltages in order to create what is essentially a plasma.

From Wikipedia:
Quote:
Fluorescent lamps are negative differential resistance devices, so as more current flows through them, the electrical resistance of the fluorescent lamp drops, allowing even more current to flow. Connected directly to a constant-voltage mains power line, a fluorescent lamp would rapidly self-destruct due to the uncontrolled current flow. To prevent this, fluorescent lamps must use an auxiliary device, a ballast, to regulate the current flow through the tube; and to provide a higher voltage for starting the lamp.
While the ballast could be (and occasionally is) as simple as a resistor, substantial power is wasted in a resistive ballast so ballasts usually use an inductor instead. For operation from AC mains voltage, the use of simple magnetic ballast is common. In countries that use 120 V AC mains, the mains voltage is insufficient to light large fluorescent lamps so the ballast for these larger fluorescent lamps is often a step-up autotransformer with substantial leakage inductance (so as to limit the current flow). Either form of inductive ballast may also include a capacitor for power factor correction.

A black hole is where god divided by zero.
http://settuno.com/
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