[GreenKeys] RF noise

[Don Robert House]

Craig,

The other problem with these bulbs is that they contain hazardous  
materials, which when they die are put into land fills.
Individually the mercury and other materials do not do much damage but  
if you take this out 10 or 20 years and think
of the thousands or millions of bulbs being disposed of, it could be a  
real problem.

The only place the bulbs are made is in China.  They cannot be made in  
the USA because of EPA restrictions.

Food for thought.

Don


On 7 Apr 2009, at 10:09 AM, Craig Sawyers wrote:

> Turned out to be one of those bulbs with the thin tubes
> looping up and down
> with a flourescent type illumination.

Indeed.  We're encouraged to use energy efficient bulbs - in fact in  
the UK
there are plans to phase out incandescent bulbs entirely - but there  
seems
to be no rules regarding the EM emissions from them.  I was trying to do
some fairly ordinary oscilloscope measurements and wondering where all  
the
rf fuzz was coming from.  Turned out to be the bulbs in my lab.  Just  
try
waving a scope probe around - anywhere within a metre of these bulbs  
you can
get hundreds of millivolts of rubbish.

I would have thought that bulbs would fall under EMC regulations that  
govern
everything else from the toaster to the coffee machine - but  
apparently not.

Craig