CCFL LCD monitor is not very good as a lamp

[lordvader88]

I scrapped a 32" TV, and it has a nice PSU and some chips I can play with, and I manged to figure out how to get the CCFL working off the PSU alone, but sadly it's not even worth it as a wall lamp in my room I don't think. I don't need a lightbox ATM, and have a much smaller 19" I could scrap to use for that.

What else could I use the CCFL for? I hate to toss it. I'll keep the HV inverter tho either way

[james_s]

Art? Those thin bare tubes look pretty cool. Maybe a sort of miniature architectural neon tube?

[Miyuki]

CCFL are not very efficient by today standards compared to LED technology and have this complex HV power supply

[james_s]

I wouldn't call the power supply complex, certainly no more so than a decent LED driver. They are not particularly efficient but they do look cool.

[NiHaoMike]

The panel blocks something like 85% of the light, remove it and it will be much brighter. Assuming it's not a super cheap bargain basement TV and the tubes aren't worn out, the light quality will be very good as they're meant for display use.

[james_s]

I used some monitor backlight tubes as an accent light for a while some time back, the light was ok quality but the color was weird. Very high color temperature but gave everything an odd sort of pinkish hue, still it was an interesting light source.