Electronic ballast for CFL compact fluorescent lightbulbs

One of the alleged selling points of CFLs is that they last much longer than incandescents. Allegedly. My experience does not bear that out. I have quite a few burnt-out CFLs and I have spent some time investigating why and how they failed. Of course, it could be that mine are low quality and higher quality CFLs would last longer. Maybe. Maybe not. These are 220 Vac CFLs. The electronic "ballast" is a very simple circuit but they fail quite easily due to heat. The circuit is contained in the base of the unit and gets quite hot so that electrolytic capacitors and semiconductors tend to fail. I am sure the circuits would last much longer if they were place outside and well ventilated. . Here is the basic circuit. It has a diode bridge and a 2.2 ~ 3.3 uF capacitor so that the circuit is fed at about 310 VDC. The real "ballast" is composed by L1 and C2 which are both in series with the fluorescent bulb. Two switches (transistors) switch alternating. Let us have a closer look.

First C2 is charged through L1 and the bulb. The current goes through the primary of T1 which generates current for the base of TR1 and keeps it conducting. Until the core saturates and TR1 cuts off.

Now the situation is reversed, the magnetic flux reverses and TR2 conducts so that the charged capacitor is now discharged, again through L1 and the bulb. Until T1 saturates and the cycle starts over again. The frequency of oscillation is mainly determined by L1 and C2 and in this example is about 10 KHz. The capacitor between the bulb filaments allows the current to go through the filaments before the lamp has started up. This heats the filaments and starts up the lamp. Once the gas is ionized it conducts and the voltage at the ends of the bulb decreases so less current goes through the filaments and most of the current goes through the gas in the bulb.

Pertama C2 dibebankan melalui L1 dan bola lampu. Arus melewati utama T1 yang menghasilkan arus untuk basis TR1 dan menyimpannya melakukan. Sampai jenuh inti dan TR1 memotong. Sekarang situasinya terbalik, fluks magnetik membalikkan dan TR2 melakukan sehingga dikenakan kapasitor sekarang habis, lagi-lagi melalui L1 dan bola lampu. Sampai T1 jenuh dan siklus dimulai lagi. Frekuensi osilasi terutama ditentukan oleh L1 dan C2 dan dalam contoh ini adalah sekitar 10 KHz.

Kapasitor antara filamen bohlam memungkinkan saat ini untuk pergi melalui filamen sebelum lampu telah dimulai. Ini memanaskan filamen dan dijalankan lampu. Setelah gas terionisasi yang melakukan dan tegangan pada ujung bohlam menurun sehingga kurang saat melewati filamen dan sebagian besar arus melewati gas di bohlam.