Letters
CFLs in Rural India
I find the newsletter extremely useful. It is essential to get information about technical improvements and their applications.I have been assessing rural lighting improvement prospects in India and plan to take up a project to evaluate the feasibility of CFLs in poor grids in rural areas.
After making suggested improvements, the grid situation would be:
Voltage: 230 V, plus or minus 15%
Frequency: 50 Hz, plus or minus 3%
Voltage surges uncertain/unknown, but present.
I wish to know: What would the reduction in the life of a CFL be under the grid situation described above? Our initial experience has been discouraging (with conventional ballasted CFLs) so people are very skeptical. How can the new generation of electronic CFLs withstand the voltage surges, and to what extent?
I would be grateful to anyone who can help me to ge the above information. Address: Amrita Clinic, Athawale Corner, Karve Road, Pune-411 004, India.
Girish Sant
Energy researcher
Amrita Clinic, Pune, India