A new method for changing the color of fluorescent lamps

Recently, there's a growing interest in lamps with a variable color. In the past, several options for changing the color of a fluorescent lamp were proposed. Most of these options use radio frequency or pulsed excitation of the gas discharge. By changing the electrical excitation, the electron energy distribution function changes. This causes the output spectrum of the lamp to change. A disadvantage of such a lamp is the expensive power sources that are required. Especially the pulsed excitation is costly; it demands electrical pulses on microsecond scale with several different pulse shapes. We propose a new lamp with a variable color. This lamp is more efficient than the lamps mentioned above, it has the same construction as a normal fluorescent lamp, and it doesn't need expensive rf sources and pulsed power sources.