Why do CFL's go bad?

[Gobaga]

a wireless CFL would be great

I know Tesla had wireless bulbs, but didn't he use some sort of button, carborundum?  Is it possible to light fluorescent bulbs with a receiver attached to them or just the one wire like Tesla used?

[Vortex1]

As we know, you can light fluorescent tubes with no wires, just put them in an RF field with enough ionizing energy and there will be light.....but the light will be rather dim unless you create an intense RF field, which would also fry anyone trying to use the light.

You could build a tuned circuit to absorb the energy and transfer more power to the tube, but again once you calculate the required field energy you would not want to work in the vicinity of that field.

Again it all comes down to Lumens, and a 60 watt equivalent CFL draws about 14 watts or so from the line. At 85% or so efficiency for the converter, the lamp runs at about 12 watts to produce 900 Lumens @ 1 meter.

Now the questions I would put forward to the forum is this: How much local RF field strength is required one meter away from a CFL with or without a tuned circuit to produce 900 Lumens? Yes it will "light" with very small radiated power from an RF source but how many Lumens of useful light will be produced?

And if you crank up the power to the 900 Lumens@ 1 meter, would you want to live / work in a field with that much radiated energy?

You will find that it is most efficient to supply the energy directly to the tube with wires, so that none is lost radiating in other directions such as would happen with an RF ionizing field.

[Gobaga]

Sounds like the only thing engineered into CFL's is that you can't light them any other way.

[jadaro2600]

The do indeed have to be designed in such a way as to minimize electrical interference - they're use in multiple settings where this interference could cause negative effects.

I think that a filament-free bulb might be the trick, something that could utilize the fact that they already have mercury vapor in them.  Induction electrodes, perhaps? ...I'm thinking something that will not corrode when struck electrically?

I think I read somewhere that it's the heater filament's metal migrating into the area of plasma, and the subsequent failure of the chemically complex phosphor coatings that make them fail ( the bulb that is ) ballasts tend to go bad for their own reasons.

I, for a short time, thought that gas may be escaping.  I didn't know there was a wire running their length? ..someone enlighten me.

[the_big_m_in_ok]

Is it possible to light fluorescent bulbs with a receiver attached to them or just the one wire like Tesla used?

One can light a fluorescent bulb standing next to a Tesla coil from the radiated magnetic field of the coil.  Just hold the bulb close enough.

Without experimentation, however, I don't know how much better a wire connection would be.

--Lee