Specifications
National distributor shipping direct throughout the United States
to place orders or for more information:
800 / 876 / 0660
fax 888 / 440 / 4219
Wisconsin 800 / 962 / 7015
Wisconsin fax 920 / 757 / 6452
headquarters 40 Washington Street, Westborough, Massachusetts 01581 • www.efi.org/wholesale
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Compact Fluorescent Lighting
Energy Federation offers a wide selection of energy efficient lighting products — the latest technologies in compact
fluorescent lights (CFLs). CFLs are designed to produce a high-quality, incandescent-like warm light and use about
70% less electricity than conventional incandescent lights.
Most good quality CFLs are rated to last between 6,000 and 10,000 hours. This usually translates to a 2–4 year
life
time depending on usage. (One year is 8,760 hours.)
Not all
dimming switches are compatible with dimming CFLs. There are times when flickering and/or buzzing may
occur with certain switch and lamp combinations. We suggest that you buy a small quantity of dimming CFLs and
try them in your application before re-lamping a large area.
Unless specified, CFLs are not rated for use in outdoor fixtures. If used
outdoors they should be in an enclosed
fixture protected
from the elements. Enclosed post lights and porch ceiling fixtures are good places to install CFLs.
In terms of light output, typical incandescent equivalents are as follows:
approximate
CFL wattage incandescent equivalent lumens/output
11w 40w ~600
13w 50–60w ~750
15w 60w ~900
20w 75w ~1,200
23w 90w ~1,400
26w 100w ~1,700
38w 150w ~2,700
55w 250w ~3,900
7
0w 300w ~4,600
Average Rated Lifetime
The median time it takes for a lamp to burn out. Based upon continuous testing of lamps in laboratories, the hour
rating is the point in time when 50% of the test samples have burned out and 50% are still functioning.
Ballast
The part of the lamp assembly designed to start and control the flow of power to the fluorescent lamp.
Color Rendering Index (CRI)
An international system used to rate a lamp’s ability to show an object’s color. The higher the CRI, based on a scale of
0–100, the truer colors will appear. Any CRI above 80 is considered very good. Natural sunlight has a CRI of 100.
Color Temperature
A measure used to describe the “whiteness” of a light source. The higher the color temperature, the cooler or whiter
the light will be. Residential incandescent bulbs are usually around 2,800° Kelvin, which is “warm” light. Office lighting
is usually
over 4,000° Kelvin, which is “cool” light. Most Compact Fluorescents fall in the 2,700° to 3,000° range.
Lumen
A measure of the amount of light given off by a light source. A typical 60w incandescent gives off 840 lumens, a
100w incandescent gives off 1,750 lumens. Check manufacturer’s specs. Lumen output and wattage equivalents vary
slightly from
brand to brand.
Definitions of Terms