If you can use NE-2H bulbs instead, they have a rated lifetime of 25,000 hours when operated at the specified current.
My gut instinct tells me you will get better lifetime operating neon bulbs from a balanced AC source vs. DC (assuming identical RMS currents) because both electrodes are used, and any impurities inside the bulb would likely be distributed on both electrodes for AC, rather than on a single electrode for DC. Same for sputtering. My big clock has 306 NE2HT bulbs and has been in service for over 2 years now; zero bulb failures. At any given time, only 14 of 306 bulbs are on, but in the past 2 years there is a total of 250,000 "bulb-hours" with no failures. I'm excluding 2 that were dead at first power-on. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/16b16be8-c631-4c0e-bcfd-5559099f96ff%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
