Difference between revisions of "Philips Master PL-Electronic"

*Most colour designations (from 2700 to 6500 K colour temperature)

[[Image:Philips HPI-T 1000W.jpg|Philips HPI-T 1000W]]

Due to their build quality, this lamps are not serviceable in the true sense. Despite the lamp's pro designation, the lamp itself cannot be plugged in and out of the base, to allow simple replacements. While some board repairs can be done if the ballast experiences failure, the most likely cause is the lamp itself burning out, meaning that fillaments are so damaged that the lamp behaves erratically or does not work at all. While fillaments can be joined to allow forced lamp starting, this solution poses risk of catastrophic failure of the internal ballast so it is not recommended. Generally, MASTER PL-Electronic lamps are much more worn out by the time they cease to function so there is very little useful life left for it. The lamp's ballast is quite difficult to access, involving potential partial destruction of the lamp's plastic housing.

Overall, these lamps were at least twice if not, more than that, long lived than typical economy compact fluorescent lamps such as the Philips Genie lamp range. However, operation in enclosed fixtures was still the biggest premature failure cause due to the high stress posed by high temperature operation, mainly in the case of the internal ballast componets.

| Good colour rendering, High efficiency reasonably long service life || Fragile construction

| Quick lamp start and restart, inexpensive || Not the same light quality as on linear fluorescent lamps

The Master PL-Electronic range was marketed as an improvement of the economy compact flourescent lamp range, offering longer service lifetime. Unfortunately, these lamps were not professional in the true sense of the word, as the lamp and ballast could not be easily replaced when needed and there was no major improvement in light appearance or colour rendering compared with cheaper lamps. Theoretically, these lamps could operate better in hotter and colder environments due to better lamp design but this was not as important in most use case scenarios. Master PL-Electronic lamps mostly replaced incandescent lamps with the goal of major energy savings in hospitality and restaurant applications were cost and simplicity were valued more. On these grounds, the lamp fared well but there was nothing special about it. Ultimately, it was and still is a cheap lamp that has no redeeming quality and can be easily replaced with a modern LED lamp.

Flourescent lamps were an evolution of clear mercury vapour lamps. Development followed two avenues to increase efficiency, low pressure mercury vapour discharge and high pressure mercury discharge. High pressure mercury discharge created more useful light but the same deficit of no red and orange light was present so the light was still unsatisfactory. Low pressure mercury discharge is very efficient but not in outputting visible light, it is on UV-light emission. This UV-light is useless if it cannot be converted to visible light.

 

While this lamp generally folows the typical progress of flourescent light sources, there is one major feature that was specific to this range. In late 1980s, a compact flourescent lamp was designed, the venerable SL. It was the first product to use a magnetic ballast and starter that were integrated into a rather bulky base. The lamp had a noticeable hum and flicker but it brought major advantages in terms of energy efficiency in replacing typical incandescent lamps. In the 1990s, compact lamps received an improved electronic ballast that improved lamp's efficiency and lifetime, with no visible flicker. This development lead to later mass market popularity of compact fluorescent lamps, as they were more compact and slightly more pleasant to use. Of course, there was also a downside. Philips noticed that lamp replacements at the end of their useful life was not popular due to the typical user mindset so Philips did not bother to create, from that point further, lamps that had separate bases and lamps, reducing user mistakes upon replacement.  

As all compact fluorescent lamps were ultimately an economy prospect to replace consumer's incandescent lamps, price was always an important factor. Improvements in the PL-Electronic lamps centered on better designed electronic ballasts that could have higher rated components, able to better survive increased environment temperatures of enclosed fixtures, and improved lamp tube design that reduced impact of temperature variations.

The compact fluorescent lamp market was increasing up until the early 2000s, when most incandescent fixtures were replaced, and it slowly declined with the transition towards led lighting. The worldwide incandescent bulb ban had a major impact in increasing sales but in a slightly different way: users simply purchased lower quality bulbs or cheaper integrated compact flourescent lamps, meaning that there was no improvement on the standard Genie lamps or PL-Electronic.