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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 7
F
New Member
http://www.harrietcarter.com/outlet_household-helper-specials/power-mizer/

has anyone seen these before? looks like a joke to me. What would be the logic behind these things if they even did work???

a resistor?

Joined: Jul 2004
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G
Member
They are diodes


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 7
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New Member
so they are feeding the bulb un rectidfied dc current? how does this save power?

Joined: Jul 2004
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G
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I didn't say it works, that is just what it is.
It may only be half wave.


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,803
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...no noticeable loss of brightness...

Your eyes will easily adjust 0.1 of a stop = 10% reduction in output, and will hardly notice. Color rendition will suffer though. Will they work on a CFL?


Wood work but can't!
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,213
S
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If that's a diode, it's going to be a 50% reduction, not 10%. People may notice flicker, as well, as the frequency will reduce from 120Hz (bright on + and - peaks) to 60Hz (just + peaks).

What they may mean is that dimmers noticibly change the brightness of the bulb and color temperature. This method presumably doesn't.

Joined: Nov 2002
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W
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Might be a thermistor, a special resistor that is designed to be a high resistance when cold, and when you turn the light switch on, it gets hot and the resistance drops to a low value. This reduces the turn on inrush current on the lightbulb, reducing the stress on the filament, and after the thermistor warms up, the bulb is running at around the 10% reduction that your eyes won't notice.

Half wave diodes will make the lightbulb much dimmer and the light a lot browner.

Thermistors are commonly used in switching power supplies in computers, used to reduce inrush current upon power up.

Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 404
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Flicker shouldn't be a problem with a standard bulb shouldn't be a problem, as it's unlikely that the filament would cool enough in 1/60 second to be noticeable to the human eye.

I'm assuming any such devices would not make a CFL very happy.

Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 939
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I have see that " energy saver button " for so many years I know the early one were dimmed to about half brightness due it converted from AC to DC in half wavefourm.

Oh yeah the CFL will not like the energy saver button at all it will wreck hovac on the electronic units.

Higher wattage bulbs are not too noticable with flicker as long it stay above 40 HZ but once you get down below 40 HZ { it don't matter if sine wave or chopped DC wave } it will flicker. { it can get really bad like old 25 HZ days }

Merci,Marc


Pas de problme,il marche n'est-ce pas?"(No problem, it works doesn't it?)

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pdh Offline
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And how will this affect neutral current on wye systems?

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