This video will be a little… different.
This is a wonderfully earnest device made
by General Electric, and I use the word earnest
because it’s clearly a neat idea, but a
far from perfect, and to be honest, weird
idea.
This is the GE Circlite energy saving lamp
from 1991.
Many of this product’s details seem lost
to history, probably because these weren’t
so popular.
I mean, this box shows you right here.
Started at 10.96, went on clearance for $7,
annnnd ended up at Goodwill for $1.99 many years later.
Quick note--yes this isn’t what I said my
next video was going to be, I’m working
on it--I promise!--but I wanted to show you
this thing.
I had originally planned to showcase this
in my last video and had it in the first draft
of the script, but it got lost in the basement
of my parent’s house, and only recently
could I visit them and find it.
So, what is this?
Well, it’s a not-so-compact fluorescent
lamp, or an NSCFL if you will.
It looks as though GE may have been making
these since the sixties in various forms.
Really this is a magnetic ballast and starter
plug concealed in this, and I hesitate to
call it such but, attractive adapter.
You can tell it’s a plain-ol magnetic ballast
because it’s 1) Old, and 2) surprisingly
heavy.
It drives a 22 watt T9 circline tube, and
it’s meant as an energy saving alternative
to incandescent lamps.
Really forward thinking, and the box has some
compelling data on the back.
This unit appears to have never been put to
use, as the lamp ends aren’t darkened at
all, and it’s in the original carton.
So, how does one use this thing?
Well, a large part I’m sure of why these
never took off was the fact that installing
them in a lamp could be fairly annoying.
You’d need to remove the shade and harp,
install the assembled lamp, though the instructions
say you should put the tube in after you’ve
screwed the adapter in, which is nothing short
of asinine, and then the harp would go through
the space between the tube and ballast, and
you’d put the shade back on.
Cool.
But it won’t work in a lamp like this, a
ceiling fixture like that, or really in a
whole bunch of applications.
Not exactly universal.
Assembling it is somewhat terrifying because
this clip is is rather tight, and I know fluorescent
tubes are stronger than they look, but it
still seems like it’s gonna shatter in my
hands when clipping it in.
Then you put the little plug in and you’re
ready to run it.
Because it uses a preheat starter, it starts
erratically and differently each time you
turn it on!
So that’s fun.
And after it fires up, you’ll see the second
reason these probably weren’t that popular.
The phosphor formulation in this tube is AWFUL.
Really, really bad.
White balance is, weird, with it producing
a sickly purplish grey light--even though
the box assures us it has a warm, pleasing
color.
Nope!
And white balance isn’t the biggest issue.
ANYTHING under it looks bizarre, with colors
being reproduced very strangely.
But, this was pretty much standard fare for
fluorescent lighting of the time.
Let’s do a quick comparison.
I tend to buy all of my household items from
IKEA because I’m cheap and boring, so I
happen to have three identical lamps.
Let’s load em’ up with a standard 75 watt
incandescent (what this promises to replace),
the ENERGY CHOICE miracle device in the middle,
and a more modern 60 watt equivalent CFL.
Ready, go!
What a warm, pleasing color that middle one
makes.
Well, let’s give it a better chance, then.
One of the real advantages this has over a
modern CFL is that the ballast is separate
from the tube, so we can replace the tube
with something a little less terrible.
Off to the hardware store.
Here in the US, we describe our fluorescent
tubes by their diameter in eighths of an inch.
Not sure how the rest of the world does it,
but true to American fashion, it’s a rather
bizarre numbering scheme.
The older T12 tube is 1 and a half inches
in diameter, as it’s 12/8ths of an inch,
and the now more standard T8 is one inch in
diameter.
But this thing is a T9.
Nine eighths of an inch.
Not sure why that’s a thing, but apparently
it’s a standard size for circline tubes.
Whatever.
I’m truly sorry if this is standard convention
for the rest of the world because it’s ridiculous.
So, now that I’ve got a not-terrible tube
installed, how does it look?
MUCH better.
It’s a little cooler than I’d like at
3000K, but at least colors look at least somewhat
correct.
I think I’ll leave this thing in one of
my lamps here, as it is plenty bright and
a neat novelty every time you switch it on.
One thing I can’t help but wonder is what
will happen when the starter fails.
It doesn’t seem like you’re meant to replace
it, and truthfully I don’t know if this
center bit even comes apart, but I imagine
it will last for a very long time.
In fact the box suggests the adapter should
last 20 years.
If for some reason it won’t start a tube
anymore, I’ll hack this open and see if
it’s rocking a standard glow starter plug
thing or what.
Though you can see the starter glow at the
bottom of the adapter, so we know for sure
it at least has the guts of a standard neon
starter plug inside.
One interesting note is that because the tube
is far away from the center of the adapter,
in lamps that will accommodate it, it produces
far more light downward than even an ordinary
incandescent.
This can be useful for lamps such as desk
lamps, as it will illuminate the work surface
quite well.
Thanks for watching, and thank you especially
to supporters on Patreon!
You can support this channel with a totally
voluntary contribution to help keep these
videos coming.
And with that, I’ll see you next time.
