Effects of replacing incandescent lamps with energy saving compact fluroescent lamps

The Australian government has introduced a policy to replace all inefficient incandescent lamps with energy saving compact fluorescent lamps by 2010. However, unlike incandescence lamps, compact fluorescent lamps do not draw sinusoidal currents at almost unity power factor. Therefore, implementation of this policy may introduce \nserious power quality problems for the power supply authorities. This paper investigates the impact of current harmonics generated by a number of different types of compact fluorescent lamps, commonly available in Australia, on the quality of the conventional supply. Experimental results are presented to show a comparison of the actual energy consumption, power factor, costs, Lumen levels and current harmonics of compact fluorescent lamps and incandescent lamps. These results show that the power quality and the amount of light output from compact fluorescent lamps do not depend on the cost of compact fluorescent lamps. Simulation results are presented using the experimental data to determine the impact of large influx of compact fluorescent lamps on the third harmonic component present neutral current. It is also shown in this paper that direct replacement of incandescent lamps by equivalent wattage compact fluorescent lamps may give rise to safety issues.