Subject: Fluorescents that don't start in the dark

From: [email-masked] (BillyFish)
Date: 29 Jul 1995 00:55:40 -0400

I have been having trouble with a fluorescent lamp that uses a
conventional glow tube starter.  It does not start in the dark!  I have
traced the problem back to the starter.

The routine was that I would buy a new starter, get it home, try it out. 
The new starter would work just fine.  The slow starting would then show
up again.  I am too embarassed to tell how long it took before I realized
that the hard starting ocurred only at night.  Of course, the new starter
was first tried during the day with no starting difficulty.

The starters, made or imported by Regent, have about 2mm holes in their
aluminum cases.  At first, I thought that the hole was to allow you to see
whether the glow tube turned on if you had trouble starting.  This hole
allows light into the case to illuminate the electrodes in the
thermostatic glow tube.  Photoelectrons are formed.  These electrons allow
the glow to get started. Letting the light in seems to be the real purpose
of the hole.

I did other tests to confirm the difficult start at night.  For example,
after a minute or so of not starting, I would shine a flashlight on the
starter.  The lamp started in about two seconds.  There never was a
starting problem during the day.

In the old days, there were no holes in the starter cases.  Maybe some
radioactive material was used to help things along.  I don't know.  Now,
if it is really dark, it looks like you have to wait for natural
radioactivity or a cosmic ray if you want your lamp to work.  It may also
be that the glow tubes receive more thorough processing than used to be
the case.  It might be that all sharp points and barnacles eliminate any
possibility that field emission starts the glow.

When I point these problems out to the vendors of starters, I get laughed
at.  I have not received much better treatment from the engineer at
Regent.

What has been the experience of others on this newsgroup?  Are there
brands other than Regent that do not have this problem?

I am new to this newsgroup so this problem may have been discussed before.
 In that case, please be easy on me.

William Buchman, Ph.D., P.E.