Light Bulb Types

We are lost in darkness. If there is no natural sunlight we use different ways of lighting. Until electricity was discovered and made available to the public fire was used to lighten dark places. Today the most common way to make artificial light is to use some kind of electrical light bulbs. There are many different types of bulbs. They differ in efficiency, light spectrum, lasting and some other parameters. Here are listed the most widely used bulb types.

Incandescent Light Bulbs

They were invented in early 19th century. Many people worked on different designs using different materials for filament. First bulbs used carbon filament which was in the beginning of 20th century replaced with tungsten which is still used today. One of key elements that contributed to successful practical implementation of incandescent light was high vacuum which was only possible with special pumps. It was Thomas Edison who made improvements which made incandescent light bulbs practical and suitable for mass production.

Most current incandescent bulbs used for lighting still use the screw developed by Thomas Edison--it is called the Edison screw. Today we have hundreds of millions of bulbs all around the world. The production cost of such bulbs is very low but the bulb has one huge drawback. It is very ineffective. Only few percent of electrical energy is converted into light. The rest is dissipated as unwanted heat. Because of worldwide use of incandescent lighting a significant amount of produced electrical energy is wasted through bulb heating.

Fluorescent Light Bulbs or Lamps

The basic principle of fluorescent light is to excite gas atoms with electricity, the excited atoms will produce ultraviolet light which will cause phosphor to fluoresce. This is then the visible light we need. Fluorescent bulbs need an external ballast to work properly. This ballast regulates the current through the tube. Fluorescent bulbs are manufactured in various tube shapes and are much more efficient then incandescent ones. However, they also have some drawbacks. They contain phosphor and mercury which is very toxic. Therefore, fluorescent bulbs must be disposed properly in special containers.

Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL)

This is a compact version of the fluorescent lamp. It is designed to directly replace incandescent bulbs. It uses the same screw, the ballast is created with small built-in electronic circuit and for the same luminosity is uses significantly less electrical power. Because of this many countries will replace all incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps. This will not only reduce electrical power consumption, it will also consequently reduce global warming.