Lighting a Vertical Vivarium

[sajane]

cfl's right? no the box says do not use with timers or dimmers

[ViperJr]

Comapct flourescent lights are flourescent tubes, just in the form of a bulb and thus more practicle. They are perfectly fine to use with timers. I use it, along with probably thousands of others. When you have a timer, it just stops and starts the electricity flow to it. On or off. Just like when you press the button.

If you want to read more about it, take a look at wiki:
Compact fluorescent lamp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[UncleChester]

Some kinds of timers have a little bit of power still flowing in the 'off' position and can apparently cause problems with CFLs, like they try to turn themselves on when the timer is 'off' and this can reduce the life of the CFL or even cause them to flicker (see the Wiki link Viper gave, or DEQ - When to use CFLs for more).

That said, I just use cheap mechanical timers I picked up at Home Depot and they work fine with my CFLs and with all the people here who use them I wonder if you have to go out of your way to find a timer that causes a problem. I've hade some going for a couple of years at least, so if they are reducing the lifespan of my CFLs it's not that big of a deal.

The timers make it much simpler, and probably save me money in the long run from the times I would have forgotten to shut the lights off (I wish my oven had a timer!).