Everynow and again somebody at work says that starting some fluorescent fixtures takes as much power as it takes to keep it lit for an hour and sometimes they even say for longer. I tell them that is wrong. I would like an easy way of explaining to them that it doesn’t take that much power but I am finding it hard to put it into words.
Say a fluorescent fixtures draws .5A. The voltage is 120V and the pf is .85
Now that would be 51 watts.
If the fixture is on for an hour that would be .051Kw/h of power
If it takes say 1 second for the fixture to start I will have to take my above .051Kw/h and see how much power that would be in 1 second.
51watts x 60minutes = 3060w
So 3060 watts for 1 minute is egual to 51 watts for an hour.
3060watts x 60 sec = 183600w
So 183600 watts for 1 sec is the same as 51 watts for an hour.
So they are telling me that it takes 183600 watts for 1 second to start this fixture. No Way, lol.
Is this a good way of explaining (using math) that it doesn’t take that much energy to start? Or is there a better way?
