Tuesday, September 21, 2010

5 Most Common Problems with Induction Lighting | DoItYourself.com

Here's a post on induction lighting.

5 Most Common Problems with Induction Lighting | DoItYourself.com

Induction lighting uses a special type of fluorescent bulb. Induction lights use a magnetic field generator to electrically excite the phosphorus coating on the inside of a glass tube. This type of lamp offers several financial and environmental benefits over traditional electric fluorescent bulbs. Induction bulbs are more energy efficient and last longer. An induction bulb produces more light for a given amount of electric power than either compact fluorescent bulbs or light-emitting diodes. High quality bulbs can operate for 80,000 to 100,000 hours. The bulbs warm up much faster and with less energy than sodium vapor bulbs. This has led some municipalities to adopt induction lamps for street lighting. However, the technology is fairly new and still undercommercialized. Induction lights have been neglected in favor of LEDs by important policymakers such as the U.S. Department of Energy. Problems still exist with the technology.

Read more: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/5-most-common-problems-with-induction-lighting#ixzz10B8h1dZF

I think it is fair to say that there are problems still exist with the technology. 99% of the induction sold in the USA are made in China - and from user reports i have gathered from Australia to Germany, the Chinese ballasts, not the bulbs, are the most problematic and fundamentally challenged area.

Largely because the technology was copied - from Philips and Osram, the Chinese R&D have failed to improve upon that 20 years old ballast design and electrical circuitry. If you understand the fundamentals of induction and magnetism, you will find that the Chinese ballasts are so technically backwards in this digital world. Open one of these ballasts and you will travel back to the analog days, listening to radios and 8 tracks.

Unfortunately, there are no one in China that can upgrade this ballast to a digital world. If China is the world factory, then why has production not been scaled up to make this technology cheaper? If anyone can do it, it's the Chinese that can mass produce and mass discount? Then why is that not happening? My theory is that they can't - the production know how is so low that there are very little competent manufacturers, and even amongst those who know it, the failure rate is so high that it cannot be mass produced.

By mass produced i mean in the scale of CFL manufacturers which, in China, produces 20 million units in a month, in a decent size and competent facility. The numbers that i have heard from Chinese induction manufacturers are 1 million units per year. Why 240 times less?

If they can scale up production, we will see prices falling and a successful commercialization of the technology - which is already half the price of LED equivalents.

7 comments:

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Anonymous said...

"An induction bulb produces more light for a given amount of electric power than either compact fluorescent bulbs or light-emitting diodes."
This is not true. In fact induction has lower energy efficiency than present conventional FL (ex.linear FL)
" However, the technology is fairly new and still undercommercialized."
This technology is one of oldest lighting technologie sir. 23 June 1891 Tesla was granted US patent 454622 of fist induction lamp.
"Chinese R&D have failed to improve upon that 20 years old ballast design and electrical circuitry."
It seems to be true. If fact present Philips and Osram generators are a lot better than Chinese ones, but it can't be say the same about light sources.

Best regards,
Artlight

Anonymous said...

I think the author was referring to CFL and LEDs, which, at the moment of publishing, are lower than induction. But it is widely known that T8 and T5 have higher luminous efficiency than induction. But that is just one piece of the puzzle and you have to incorporate reflector, fixture design and coefficient of utilization.

As far as technology goes, it's the new methods of coupling, ie, Philip's internal induction and Osram's external induction. There may be other ways of transferring the energy to the lamps via induction.

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Anonymous said...

Certainly, Chinese induction companies failed to build new ballast architecture that is more efficient. However, there are several companies with great ballasts in the world. There are this company in Korea that can even to dimming. Induction is just much better source of outdoor lighting than HPS, or LED, especially in heavy duty area. Using LED for street light is the dumbest idea. They are expensive and short lasting.

Anonymous said...

Watch the Salesman jump on this one.
They are the ones that should not even open their mouths because they only repeat what they are told to say.

After reading some of the responses from some of the readers, WELL, they should have just read the post and said nothing. They are accurate about the history of Induction, but fairly ignorant about the new Induction technologies.

It is obvious that many are not aware of the latest Technology used with induction. It is called "Self Adaptive". It is very efficient, much more than LED and new induction lights have no glare at all. LED cannot say that. It is also much cooler than LED.
It can operate in temperatures of 77* up to 122*. LED starts losing intensity at 77* and burns up after 100*. So, let's look at the facts that are known for the NEW modern Technology.

Also, there is a new phosphorous coating being used. We have it and it lights up our lights - like when the switch is flipped. It is brighter and has a CRI close to 90.

Lumen output is the next step in the R&D with nano technology. Some people do not know what Nano-Technology is, like some of the people who responded to this post.

Induction is being adopted by more cities for street lighting because it is much easier on the eyes. The glare from LED lighting can be blinding are certain angles. Induction is a proven technology, will last 100K hours.

Read the DOE post on their website about Induction lighting. They call it the "The Best Kept Secret". The Lighting companies killed it when they realized this light would last 100K hours.

So, just correcting the irresponsible, reckless responses to the original post.