I have a friend who has installed a motion switch in his closet. He says it works fine on incandacent bulbs but not on a "Daylight 6500K CFL". First question: Is this normal or has he possibly got a "bad or cheap switch"? He asked me also if I knew of a simple relay I could recommend. I don't deal in relays too much, though I have in the past, so I would only know to tell him a simple "plug in relay"and base, that was rated at at least the amperage of the load he has on it. I imagine the lowest rated one is probably rated maybe 1 amp?? I'll probably just tell him to go to the nearest electrical supply house and ask them. He lives a few hundred miles from me so I can't go and check it out for him:) Thanks for the help. Steve..

That should make no dif.
Does he realize that the CFL may not be "instant" on?
Perhaps just a new motion is in order.

It should be ok.

I've seen all manner of restrictions in the instructions to controls. "Not for fluorescent" is a rather common stipulation. So, the first thing you need to do is read the instructions.

I know, is sounds really silly ... but sometimes they even have useful information in them

Ya have to keep in your mind there are some motion switch are NOT designed to work with screwin CFL lamp because some of the motion switch need a " close circuit" to keep thier electronic going and with electronic CFL it will keep them in open or failure mode unless you put in indescent lamp in there.

Merci, Marc

I agree, i just put a motion in my garage for two, 2 tube eight foot florescent fixtures. It was made by leviton. You have to get one that is rated for CFL or else it WILL NOT WORK.

If this is simply a case of needing a load when off you could put a 50k resistor across the lamp holder leads.

Fixtures that use photosensors also make short work of CFLs.

It's a closet. Not much point in a CFL in a closet, is there? Seems the perfect place to save $2 and just use a cheap ole ordinary bulb.
If this were the case, it would work if you put in a double-bulb fixture with a an incandescent and a CFL. I've tried this on a motion-sensor switch in my house, but the CFLs flicker and die in just in a few weeks of intermittant use. I've seen the same problem with dimmers and electric eyes.

One odd thing... We put up a 13-bulb chandalier on a standard lutron dimmer (the kind explicitely not rated for CFL), and on a whim, I replaced one of the 40W incandescents with a 15W ("60W") CFL. And the damned thing works great- puts out more light than the incandescents and actually dims better, too. And, inexplicably, has NOT suffered an early death. This is a cheap CFL too, out of a $10 wal-mart 6-pack. I'm at a loss to explain why this works where others don't.

I see the CFL as more of a cheap retro to get incandecents out of the closet and less to save money. Granted the life expentency will be shortend with each cycling of the light.

I have 2 CFLs in my garage and another one in my lamp post, controlled by Heath motion sensors. Both seem fine. The lamp post is paralleled with an incandescent porch light but the CFLs in the garage are on by themselves. There are also CFLs in the garage door opener. I am migrating everything to CFL as the old bulbs die. So far so good on all of them

I am just starting to convert my bulbs to CFL's as they burn out but I am having issues with my external fixtures.

Right now where I am in Canada its -30 and I find that the one CFL I am trying outside does not put out as much light in this weather compared to a regular incandescent bulb.

I came home from work at 5 am this morning and a birthday candle would put out more light than the CFL bulb over my door. When I installed the bulb in the fall the brightness was good at that time of day.

I don't know if its just the brand (Globe) that is doing this or just the nature of the product. I have not seen any CFL bulbs marked for cold weather use in any of the retailers.

Also for the ones in the house it took a little getting use to the short lag between turning the switch on and the bulb coming on.

Florescent bulbs, CFL or the old fashioned kind, don't do well in very cold weather.

I found that CFL's if they are outside in a cold climate and in a fixture that allowed air to circulate freely around the lamp, the lamp did not operate worth beans. Put that same lamp inside a fixture thats totally enclosed and they operated a lot better. There are ones that are good for outdoor use where the tube is enclosed in a plastic shield and they work fine all year round. The "Buglite" type are an example.

Have 24 of them in my barn - unenclosed - they take about 5 to 7 mins to warm up and operate at maximum brightness but start off quite dim at 0°F. I never perceived a difference once they were warm though

I noticed today one reason my light looks dim after checking the amber CFL bug light I took out and that it is a 23w light, the white one I put in was 13W. For some reason I thought they were both the same rating.

I will have to get a 23W white bulb next time I am shopping and see how bright it looks once it warms up from a frigid start. I am sure the 10W will make a difference.

My friend emailed me back. He tried a relay but that still didn't work. He then went and bought a $9.00 motion light and put in his closet, and he said it's working fine now. He wanted the CFL because it gave out "daylight" light that would give him the true color of his clothes. I gave him other options, but he was determined not to pay over $50.00 for a switch that was rated for CFL's and he definetly didn't want a regular incandescent bulb. He said he still paid less for the relay and the motion light, than for the right motion switch. I guess he's not counting drive time etc.... Pretty determined I'd say....

I capitulated to the CFL (only slightly!) a few months ago and put one in an outside light on the back corner of my house while replacing it. It's a fully enclosed fitting, and even in the relatively mild winter temperatures of England I've noticed that on colder nights (in the 30s) it's taking a good 10 minutes to reach full brightness.

We have them on the outside fixtures at my parents' house, where week-long stints of below-freezing weather is common. The failure rate is on average one a year; most are left on all the time, so there's no problem with warmup time.

I have done some informal research on this. The one I am using has a relay. I guess that is why it works
I can't imagine you would have any problem if you used the Heath/Zenith motion detectors like they have in the PAR-38 luminaires. That is what I have in the garage for my CFLs.
I haven't tried my "inline" occupancy sensor yet (device type that directly replace a 2 wire switch) That is probably the one that will be trouble. They work fine with a few feet of rope light tho, so you don't need much load but that is incandescent.