New Philips 2in1 LED/Fluo nightlight

Zelandeth · #1 03-18-2004, 02:53 PM

Will get a page for this up as soon as my webhost sorts itself out, can't upload to my site just now...grrrr...

Spotted something in Tesco today when looking for a 100W Halogena bulb...which they've stopped stocking, great (mutters something profane about the store in question). Initially, looks like one of those standard CF bulbs with the GLS shaped diffuser over the tube. However, this initially normal seeming 9W bulb has a trick up its sleeve. Or under its bulb as the case actually is.

It's a bulb with two modes. One of which runs the 9W CF lamp, another which runs two amber LED's hidden away under the outer bulb. It's intended as a nightlight, and serves that purpose well, seems a bit brighter than those neon nightlights, and the colour's pretty similar as well. However, it allows you to instantly switch from that to the equivilant of a 40W incan instantly in the same fixture, simply by switching the supply off and on again twice within three seconds.

It initially powers up in the LED mode, so I can see another possible application for this. Put in whichever fixture you can reach the switch for from the bed - i.e. if you just need to make your way across the room for something, no need to totally blind yourself with a bright bulb, however, if you need more light, just flick the switch a couple of times, and you have a decent amount of light.

I'm not actually sure if the LED's run all the time or not, as their output is totally masked by the light from the tube, not sure how I'd find out either. The only possible worry I can see with this lamp, is whether the heat buldup in there will cause trouble for the LED's, as though far, far less than from an incan, the CF tube will still put out a fair amount of heat. Only time will tell I guess, though I have yet to decide whether to put this into service (Where?!?) or to keep it as an exhibit for the collection/museum. Couldn't afford this one, let alone buy a control sample!

Performance seems to be okay - it's not blinding, but it wasn't designed to be. Output does seem to be on par with a 40W soft white incan, as it claims. Warmup time is up there with the best of them, and the colour's good. Eyeball figure would be 3000K, give or take, slightly cooler than the "Mercury 15W 2700K" lamp on my lighting page, but not by much.

The only niggle I have really, is the choice of LEDs. They're obviously water-clear case types, ans project a clearly visible ringy pattern onto the opal outer bulb, with a shadow cast by the U-tube inside. Diffused LEDs would have made things look much tidier. Will clarify this with photos once I have a working upload feature again!

Not sure if I'm the only CF and flourescent enthusiast here or not, but I hope this is of interest to someone!

Brock · #2 03-18-2004, 04:16 PM

Sounds interesting, can't wait to see the pic's. So is this a regular base lamp? If so I wonder why they didn't make it like a 3-way, so you could use it in a 3-way fixture. Sounds like a great night light option.

Zelandeth · #3 03-18-2004, 05:03 PM

Yep, standard B22 cap on it. (worth noting that I'm in the UK. Though being a Philips product, will probably make its way to the states eventually I'd guess!)

Has been running in nightlight mode for four hours now, stone cold to the touch.

Chris M. · #4 03-19-2004, 02:37 AM

That is a seriously clever idea. I don`t normally shop in Tescos but might have to stop by some day and see if I can`t find one. And my local lighting shop sells some Philips CFLs too, perhaps they could order one in for me.

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Brock - here in the UK, 3-way lamps are unknown. When I first heard of them I wondered how they worked, and only after buying one from a US lamp distributor did I find out. Unfortunately our standard 2-prong bayonet lamp base couldn`t support 3-way operation, and I can`t see 3-prong bayonet bases being introduced without causing serious problems for the average dumb consumer. Screw bases are not uncommon but usually get left to spotlight type fixtures and miniature bulbs (oven, microwave, etc). Too bad, it`s quite a good idea.

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For the benefit of those who don`t know how 3-way lamps work, simply they are bulbs with two filaments inside. One is a higher wattage (eg 100 watt) and one is a lower wattage (eg 50 watt). The screw base has the usual side and button contacts, but with the addition of a third ring contact around the button. The socket has a corresponding extra contact. One end of both filaments is connected to the shell, and the other ends go seperately to the button and ring. Usually the higher wattage goes to the button. A switch built in to the socket controls the bulb - low power lights the lower filament, medium power lights the higher filament and high power lights both, giving three levels of light without the drift towards orange at lower settings that dimmer switches produce. A bonus of the design is that usually a regular bulb can still be used in a 3-way socket (just witn on/off only of course) and a 3-way bulb can go in a regular socket lighting on the higher filament only.

I have a 1980s Philips three-way lamp that has a small 15 watt filament for low and a big 100+ watt filament on high, which is more intended for nightlight/general use rather than three evenly spaced brightness levels. The difference between the medium and full settings is minimal at best. It is likely that a US-market version of this new Philips lamp could take advantage of the 3-way system quite nicely and replace these incandescent versions.

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Zelandeth · #5 03-19-2004, 03:18 PM

If all else fails Chris, I'll get one here and send it down to you!

My bulb collection may be small, but at least I've got something new in it now!

(Chris M. Could I possibly send you the pics of my bulb for you to post here? I have no idea how long my upload fascility will be down (servers privately run, and the entire script is being redone piece by piece), and I'd like to get the pics up soon!).

Zelandeth · #6 03-29-2004, 01:19 PM

Finally! Have access to my site again!

Here's the pics as promised. Will try to get the packaging ones up later this evening.

Anyone wants anything else, just ask.

And the packaging. Well, two images and the english bit of the text.

The_LED_Museum · #7 03-29-2004, 02:09 PM

Too bad that doesn't have a standard (for the US) A19 medium screw base and run from 110-120VAC.
Otherwise I might buy one and maybe put it on my website too.

Zelandeth · #8 03-29-2004, 02:46 PM

Yep, the rating/fitting demon, one which I keep running into these days, just the other way around! Methinks I need to get a stepdown transformer. Nice in theory, if only I had the money [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/broke.gif[/img]

Ain't that always the case?

Still, pretty sure that these will filter their way through to the states soon, if they haven't alredy. You're more than welcome to use the photos (and the packing pics) once I get them taken, and put up a bit if you want! Or just link to my bulbs page...

Willmore · #9 04-03-2004, 04:25 PM

The easiest way to run UK/US stuff in the US/UK is to get two transformers and run them back to back. Find a friend in the opposite country. Buy 2 transformers with the same secondary voltage/current. Send your friend one and have them send you one. Now wire yours into the mains, connect the secondary to the secondary of the one your friend gave you and use the primary of that to drive the stuff from *their* country. Simple? 60/50 Hz is usually not an issue--except for silly things that derive timing off of the power line. I have a clock that runs silly because of this. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Chris M. · #10 04-04-2004, 01:19 AM

An even simpler/safer way is to pick up a straight 240-110 volt transformer. Maplins have small plug-in ones (about 20 watts) for not much money and bigger ones (a few hundred watts) that are more expensive. If you need a lot of power, building site safety transformers are great, and very inexpensive for their power rating, if a bit big though. Probably overkill for powering nightlight bulbs too!

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mattheww50 · #11 04-04-2004, 01:42 AM

Not quite that simple. Pure resistive loads work OK, and most CF lamps today have electronic ballasts, however if you try this with an older CF lamp with a magnetic ballast, running a 60Hz ballast on 50Hz has a very real chance of resulting in a fire.

The same is also true of many electric motor applicances. If you try to run a 60Hz washing machine on 50Hz, odds are the motor will burn up. You hold down the cost of motors by running the magnetic material as close to saturation as you dare. Once it saturates, the current draw increases immensely... You can often 50hz appliance on 60Hz, because the higher frequency reduces the current draw, so unless the motor is about to stall from the toque demands, other than timing, nothing very bad happens with 50Hz devices run on 60hz. In my University days we did some work with servo motors. The cheapest were 400hz aircraft servo motors. They would run at 60Hz, but if you ever touched one of them, it would burn you. To say they ran hot would be a gross understatement.

As for needing two transformers, most step/step down transformers will work quite well in either direction,. Auto transformers are a bit trickier, but will work. You just have to be very careful with them because the Neutral may turn out to be far above DC ground potential!