Ultraviolet radiation emitted by compact fluorescent lamps

Abstract

To meet the objective of energy efficiency, increasing emphasis on use of energy saver compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), makes it necessary to analyze the effect of radiation especially ultraviolet (UV) radiation on human health. Various types of CFLs in terms of various shapes, sizes and electrical powers are studied for UV content present in their radiation. Various parameters such as UV irradiance, ratio of UV irradiance to electrical power (η) and ratio of UV power to luminous flux (k), for eighteen types of CFLs are studied to dictate their performance. As expected, both the UV output power and the luminous flux are reduced in the case of double envelope CFLs in comparison to single envelope CFLs, however, the k value is reduced more effectively. For all types of CFLs under study, k1 for UVA remains less than 104 µW/lm, which is a safe limit for UVA. However, the study demonstrates that the use of CFLs might be detrimental to human health if these are used at shorter distance, e.g., in table lamps.