Characteristics of fluorescent lamps under abnormal system voltage conditions

Different types of fluorescent lamps (FLs) play an important role in lighting, since they can provide significant energy saving and last longer than incandescent lamps. However, although the voltage waveform of electrical power source is considered to be purely sinusoidal and nominal at the stage of the lamp circuit design, there appear to be ever-increasing system voltage problems of amplitude variation and harmonic distortion. It is therefore important to realize the effects on the performances of different FLs under abnormal system voltage conditions. In this paper, tests were conducted on a developed harmonic generating system to identify the electrical and illumination characteristics of two popular types of FL. The characteristics of interest include active power, power factor, current harmonic distortion and illumination efficiency index (Lux W⁻¹). The tested results are proposed and discussed.