You may have read some of my other articles and the world of energy
saving light bulbs. But the terms 'halogen', 'cfl' and 'led' may of
confused you. I plan to solve that problem with this easy to understand
article on the basic four types of light bulb.
First of all there
are filament bulbs. Basically a current flows through a thin piece of
wire causing it to heat and glow. It works by keeping the 'filament',
from which it gets its name, in a zero oxygen environment. This means
the filament won't burn out, or basically set on fire. But due to the
design of this light bulb most of the electrical energy is transferred
to heat not light and the light all comes from the small piece of wire
it can really hurt your eyes. Also due to the heat they release they can
be a safety hazard too.
Next up are halogen light bulbs. Not
much better, they both work in the same way except halogens have the
filament in a small capsule inside the outer 'shell' of glass. Inside
this capsule is a halogen gas which is inert so they won't react and
give off heat However even with these advances they are still not much
better than filament bulbs but they will save you 030% in electricity!
My advice is get these in any case instead of filaments due to the fact
they have a low price and last longer than filament bulbs. In summary
they are a much better value for money, but still not nearly as good as
CFL's or LED's which I will move on to discuss.
The way a compact
fluorescent lamp (CFL) works is a current flows through a fluorescent
gas, which lights up as the electricity flows through it, instead of
simply a thin bit of wire getting hot. One huge advantage of a CFL is
that since the light comes from all the gas, the light output is spread
out and doesn't hurt your eyes. It also gives a nice glowing effect but
whether you want this or not depends on the interior lighting scheme you
have and the effect you are trying to achieve. But there is a problem
with lower quality CFLs as they tend to flicker when they are turned on
but this doesn't cover up the fact they are a lot better than halogens
or filaments from an energy efficiency perspective saving around 80%.
But LED's (Light emitting diodes) are still certainly better because
they save around 90% in electricity and consequently contribute
positively to carbon reduction.
LEDs are still most certainly the
best quality of light bulbs you can get and you may have seen them more
often in TV's and portable electronic devices in the past but now they
are more main stream. This is because they use a tiny amount of energy
compared to other light bulbs and last extremely long lengths of time,
making these the best on the market. Don't be put off by the higher
price because the huge lifespan and low energy usage makes them easily
the best value for money light bulb long term. Go for them whenever you
can!
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