The electrical performance of modern compact fluorescent lamps

Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are highly non-linear devices, which are likely to experience very high growth in penetration levels, especially in domestic environments, in Australia over the next 2 to 3 years. This will occur due to the decision taken by the Australian Federal Government to ban the sale of incandescent light globes after 2009 as measures towards meeting the needs for demand side management and climate change abatement. While CFL technology has been in existence since the late 1980s, penetration levels are nozo increasing to a point where the total CFL load cannot be considered negligible compared to other non-linear domestic loads. This paper seeks to redress the lack of concise data available describing the performance of modern CFLs over a range of influence factors, such as input voltage magnitude and harmonic distortion. It seeks to provide definitive characterisation of the modern CFL in terms of harmonic and power factor performance over a range of input supply conditions. This aim is achieved through laboratory testing of 25 CFLs of different brands, construction types and rated power levels. © Institution of Engineers Australia, 2010.