FEIT Electric 12V CFL oddness.

Well, these are strange indeed… FEIT Electric makes these 12 volt CFL twist light bulbs. Put them in a socket, apply 12v, and they light up, right?

Well, they’re… uh.. picky.

If the power does not come on INSTANTLY, like, from 0v to at least 11v in a few milliseconds, the bulb fails to light and something inside the ballast trips out. My guess would be a PTC (polyfuse). You have to wait a couple minutes then try again — and hope your power holds up THIS time… A voltage brownout that causes the bulb to dim out seems to also trigger this.

This could be trouble on a lighting controller that doesn’t turn them on instantly, or in vehicles where the power may dip due to cranking the engine, etc…

I think I’m definitely going to say that LED bulbs would be preferable to these. I mean, they work, but that behavior is just so weird!

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