Low-voltage non-thermionic ballast-free energy-efficient gas-discharge

Abstract

A low-voltage landscape lighting system having a stepdown transformer having a predetermined power rating and primary and secondary windings with said primary windings. The primary winding is adapted for connection to an AC supply source and the secondary winding being adapted for connection to a low-voltage outdoor power distribution cable and a plurality of lamp fixtures electrically connected to the power distribution cable. A number of low-voltage, non-thermionic, ballast-free fluorescent light sub-systems are connected to the distribution cables. Each has a fluorescent discharge lamp with electrodes spaced in a gaseous medium, a light transmissive envelope confining a gaseous discharge medium at a predetermined pressure between the electrodes. A power supply including a rectifier connected to the power distribution cable and constituting a direct current source is connected to a solid state switch device. The switch device is operated to generate a substantially square wave alternating current wave at the lamp electrodes so that the voltage supplied to the electrodes reverses polarity more rapidly than the pattern of electron and ion density in the tube can shift and electrons throughout the length of the tube are continually accelerated and will, through several cycles of the square wave create ions throughout the tube's volume, in steady state operation.