| Their
efficacy is close to 50 lm/W, much higher than incandescent lamps, and
similar to the least efficient fluorescent sources. However, with no electrode
to consider, starting can be instantaneous and lamps can be switched any
number of times without the degradation that always occurs when electrodes
are present. In the case of self-ballasted lamps, the lifetime is approximately
10000 hours, much less than the fitting-based induction lamps, due to the
difficulty to control the temperature of critical components in the ballast. |