Re: CFL and 'X10 noise'

["Robert Green" <robert_green1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Jim Hewitt" <jim.hewitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:hc9uci$vv7
<stuff snipped>
> I have been using CFLs for a year and a half now (mostly NVision brand)
and
> have not noticed any degradation in my X10 performance/behavior.  And
> believe me, if my wife had noticed I WOULD have heard all about it!
>
> Jim

The nVision bulbs are unique in my experience for not giving X-10 fits.
That's excluding some special very high-priced allegedly dimmable CFL's I
got from Smarthome.  I don't count them since I can't bring myself to pay
$17 a light bulb anymore.  Once as an experiment but not as a commodity.

I had tried a lot of bulbs and most had either noise or signal sucking
issues.  But Marc H. recommended nVision here and I have been able to
abandon special X-10 filters in the places that I use them.  I'm hoping he's
right on the money again with the web control device that he recently
described in another thread 'cuz I just ordered one.  But I digress.

My experience in the past with CFL's dictated that I buy a LOT of the
nVision once it was clear they worked so much better than the GE's I had
been using and the Lites of Americas (which I've banned).  Internal designs
of electronic gear can vary greatly over a product's lifetime and I'd
already been burned by "slip-streamed" changes.  I had one batch of GE bulbs
that were fine, but another batch of the exact same model made about a month
later sucked the X-10 signal down about 1.5V.  So I bought a carton of 4
packs of the 13W bulbs that were on sale for some ridiculously low price at
Home Depot and they've been mostly doing quite nicely.  Mostly.  One minor
problem is they are just not bright enough and like most CFLs, dim
considerably after the first few months of use.  As a result, I end up using
Y splitters or two fixture where I would have used one before.  Still 26W
beats 60 or 75W of electricity.  I also find that when you get to the CFL
equivalent of 100W tungsten sizes, CFLs start to get awfully big and hard to
accommodate in many fixtures..

The only serious problem left with the nVision bulbs (that the GE CFL's
ironically did NOT suffer from) are that they flash after being remotely
turned off.  This is especially true of a single bulb controlled by a single
switch or module.  That combination apparently allows enough of the "local
sense" current to charge up a cap in the CFL to a level where it can cause
the bulb to glow, briefly.  This cycle repeats forever unless local sense is
disabled but I've had hit and miss results with the mods to disable that
function.  Disabling local sense, particularly for a table or floor lamp, is
something I'd rather not do, anyway.  Another way to get around the flashing
is to use the bulbs in a multiple bulb fixture.  In those cases, or in cases
where there's some other load on the module, the CFL caps never seem to
accumulate enough charge to flash.

Another thing I am grateful for is that the newer CFL's seem more immune
from the leakage/charge/flash cycle being sensed as a "local turn on
request" and the module kicking back ON right after it's been turned off.
If there was ever an event with a low spousal approval factor, it's lights
turning themselves back on all by themselves, every time you send an OFF
command.  Very bad.   Basement shoplites had to be rewired as a result with
at least two lites per module.  Lost some "addressability" but gained lots
and lots of SAF!

I'm hoping that once LED or hi-efficiency incandescent arrive, that the
problems I'm having with CFLs will go away.  I realize that LEDs will have
some similar issues, being electrically quite different, at least in the
"eyes" of the X-10 module circuits, from the tungsten bulbs they are
replacing.  However, accommodating CFL bulbs and X-10 forced serious circuit
changes (pulling neutrals to switches or in one case, running two new
outdoor circuits) that would serve LEDs well.  The biggest issue is the
difference in the way the X-10 "local sense" current leakage is handled by
CFL and LED circuitry.  I've been reading elsewhere that people with lighted
wall switches, automatic light timers and anything else that draws power to
operate from the light circuit is subject to trouble.

Someday, I'd like to be able to load a CFL or an LED lamp into the bedroom
overhead fixture, the last place left were I haven't pulled a neutral and
just have it work and not flash like a 70's disco ball.

--
Bobby G.