Lighting is very important these days because lights are the one thing that changes our mood, and creates a positive feel environment in the home. Lights are used from smartphones to color-changing lights. Whenever we have to buy a light, it is very difficult to select one due to the vast information available to make our mind confused. So I bring you all basic and all types of tube lights with their capability, pros and cons, and properties.
Mainly lights are used in two ways:
- Indoor lights
- Outdoor lights
Indoor Lights
Lights used inside a home are indoor lights and these lights are especially used to enhance the beauty of your house interior. It can be any kind of light like a lamp, or pendant. These not just brighten but also decore your home. Most indoor lights are not waterproof and dustproof.
Outdoor Lights
These are used outside the house or any building like on streets, on outside home walls, on pillars, where no roof is there, etc. These lights are waterproof. Outdoor lighting is beneficial to us because it gives us safety and a good look too.
Types of Tube Lights
There are mainly six Types of Tube Lights. These are Fluorescent light bulb, Neon Light, Compact fluorescent lights, Halogen light bulb, Incandescent light bulb, and Light emitting diodes.
Compact fluorescent lamps
Compact fluorescent lights are energy-saving lights that consume much less energy than conventional lights. These lights are the cheapest in terms of price and decent lights but fade out over time. These lights burn out fast if we do ON/OFF quickly. It take moment to light up. It uses a main chemical that is mercury which is a dangerous chemical.
More Detail
Today CFL is replaced by LED lights, But many people still use these lights as energy-saving lights. CFL light bulb has 6000-15000 hours of life but it depends upon the usage and other factors too. It is mostly used indoors as it is sensitive to temperature that’s why it does not start in cold weather. It requires warm-up time.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 1. It is very versatile. | 1. It Required warm-up time. |
| 2. It produces little heat so no energy loss. | 2. It is not suitable for the enclosed fixture. |
| 3. It is energy efficient if you compare it to halogen light bulb and incandescent light bulb. | 3. It has a short life. |
| 4. It is cost-effective too if you compare it with halogen light bulb and incandescent light bulb. | 4. It is sensitive to cold weather. |
| 5. It works in dim light too. | 5. It uses a hazardous chemical called mercury. |
Halogen Light Bulb
Halogen light bulb can run around 30% more efficiently than an incandescent bulb and its life is also longer than a CFL bulb. It can operate on low voltage too and in high temperature as CFL and LED don’t work. It is less energy efficient as it has 2000-4000 hours of life. Halogen light bulb comes in a small size but it has better color radiation as it is used on times square walls, automobiles, stage lighting, and motion pictures too.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 1. Halogen light bulbs are very energy efficient. | 1. Halogen light bulbs are expensive. |
| 2.It is the most cost-efficient. | 2. It is sensitive to voltage. |
| 3. It is compact. | 3. It doesn't offer spherical distribution of light. |
| 4. It generates low heat. | |
| 5. It has a long life |
Incandescent Light Bulb
More Detail
For the last 100 years, Incandescent light bulb is being used because it is cheap and easy to make. It is not energy efficient. This is the reason that this light is not much used now. It is used for a special purpose only like in oven lights.
More Detail
It uses electric lights with filament that is heated until it is glow. The filament is enclosed in a bulb with a vacuum to protect the filament from oxidation. Then the current is supplied to the filament and the socket provides the mechanical support and connection. This bulb comes in many different sizes such as 1.5 volts to 3300 volts. Due to its low cost, It is widely used in a household. These lights are portable.
Applications of Incandescent Light Bulb
Incandescent light bulb is used in car headlights, flashlights, decorations, etc. These lights are less energy efficient as 5% of energy is lost during heating so, they produce 5% less light. It has a short life of 1000 hours.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 1.Incandescent light bulbs are cheap at cost. | 1.Its life is small. |
| 2.These are cheap and easy to maintain. | 2.You can't use it in a large space. It is used in oven lights. |
| 3. It uses non-toxic material. | |
| 4. It is being used for 100 years. |
LED Light Bulb
LED is short for Light emitting diodes. It is an electric light. It is a semiconductor device that emits light when electronic current flow through it. These lights are the most energy-efficient and cost-effective too. Cost-effective means it has a long life so one-time cost gives long-run results. Light emitting diodes bulbs has more cost than other types of bulbs. These bulbs don’t take warm-up time and activate instantly as it uses diodes to emit light. If you frequently On/OFF it, no effect on the life of the LED bulb. As long as you use it, Its light output decreases.
Applications of LED Light Bulb
Mobile phones to large advertising billboards to appliances that show time and data everywhere Light emitting diodes is used. It has longer life. This is the best types of tube lights
Fluorescent Light Bulb
Fluorescent light bulb uses fluorescent to produce light. If you compare it with incandescent light, it uses less power to generate the same amount of light. This kind of light is complex and expensive and the more important point is that it does not produce good colors. These lights look good and we use them indoors. Fluorescent light bulb don’t work on dimmer lights. Its initial cost is high but after that the running cost is low. It saves energy and uses mercury which is not environmentally friendly. These types of tube lights are prefered less by the people.
Neon Lamp
Neon Lamp are gas discharge lamps. It has gas at low pressure. The glass is filled with pure neon gas or a mixture of other gas too. Any bulb that has pure neon gas, produces more Bright light as compared to a mixture gas. When the volt is applied the neon gas ionizes and starts glowing. Neon lamp can be maintained at very low volts like 10-20 volts. These lights are mostly used where eye catchy spot is required like in the advertisement.
More About It
Neon gas is colorless, tasteless, and odorless. Pure neon gas produces orange and red colors but if mixed with other gases, it can produce green and blue colors too. Neon lamp is energy efficient.
Benefits of Neon Lamp
- Neon Lamp has long life(avg. 1 year)
- It is colorful light so different colors can be made easily.
- It is very flexible, so several different shapes can be formed for the bulb.
- It is specially used where extra bright light is used for focus purposes.
- As we all know, the world is struggling for energy and it uses less energy so it saves the environment too.
Conclusion
Brightness of any Bulb/ Light is assessed by its wattage then incandescent is good to go. But LED light bulb has super property of power consumption when we compare with other type of lights that generating the same light. This is the reason that in almost every place LED lights are prefered over other types of tube lights. Nowadays a large veriety of designs are available.
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Great analysis and good content.
Good