Bright Flourescent Lighting

Archive for the ‘About Fluorescent Lights’ Category

Introduced to the global market in the early 1990′s, these lamps have grown in sales for many years especially as their quality increases. As these lamps are improved and demand increases the cost has slowly begun coming down to more favorable prices allowing these fluorescent compact bulbs to become more popular in home use.

There are many attributes giving to the compact fluorescent bulbs, however the most advantageous of them is that the fluorescent lamp will last approximately 9,000 hours longer than standard incandescent light bulbs. Fluorescent lamps also use approximately 1/4 of the power incandescent lamps use to product the same quality of lighting. These two main reasons can save you upwards of $50.00 per light bulb yearly when you switch from incandescent to fluorescent.

Equivalent light output for compact fluorescent lamps:
Incandescent Lamps     Compact Fluorescent Lamps
40 Watts                              9 Watts
60 Watts                              11 – 15 Watts
75 Watts                              18 – 20 Watts
100 Watts                           25 Watts

To show just how energy efficient these fluorescent lamps are, the Canadian electrical company sent out thousands of these light bulbs to their customers in 2003 to replace their old existing incandescent lamps. Many other utility companies also offer similar programs designed to help move their customers toward the use of these environmentally friendly and cost effective lamps.

A gas filled tube and either a magnetic or electronic ballast comprise the two main components of the compact fluorescent lamp. When electricity is provided to the lamp it will flow from the ballast to the tube giving off an ultraviolet light. This light then excites the white powder phosphor coating the inside of the fluorescent tube causing the visible light which emits from the tube.

Magnetic ballasts will cause the lamp to flicker as it is started. Electronic ballasts are more commonly used but are more expensive. One of the main reasons the electronic ballast CFL’s are more expensive is that they are more efficient and give off light immediately when turned on.
The magnetic ballast CFL’s will last approximately 10,000 hours, however the electronic ballast CFL’s can last upwards of 50,000 hours.

The most remarkable new fluorescent lamps on the market would have to be the compact fluorescent bulbs also known as CFL’s. These bulbs screw into any ordinary light bulb socket so they can be used just about anywhere. Since fluorescent’s use far less energy and last much longer than incandescent lamps they can save you several hundred dollars a year by replacing all of your incandescent lighting with fluorescent lamps. The cost per light bulb will be considerably higher for the compact fluorescent’s, however you should not let this keep you from changing over since the yearly saving will well make up for the cost of installing them.

These compact fluorescent lamps are designed to use electricity to excite mercury vapor into argon or neon gas which will produce short-wave ultraviolet light. This in turn causes the phosphor to fluoresce (hence the name fluorescent) producing the visible light.

The main reason for these fluorescent compact bulbs costing more is that fluorescent lamps must use a ballast to product power suitable for the lamp to function. Incandescent lamps do not operate in this manner. With the compact fluorescent bulbs, the ballast is built into the bulb itself, typically in the plastic housing between the socket and the glow tube.

Fluorescent lighting has widely been thought of as more of an institutional and business type of lighting source. Over the last several years however, fluorescent lighting has been improved to the point of now becoming a more popular alternative for home use. There are many types of fluorescent lamps now available on the market. You can still purchase the well known tube lamp, however you can know also purchase fluorescent bulbs that fit into your home table lamps and recessed ceiling fixtures.

Energy conservation is probably the number one reason for switching to these energy conscious lamps. Business owners have known for years that using fluorescent lamps in their buildings can cut back on energy use by almost $50.00 per month per bulb. Now home owners are able to use these same types of lamps to save energy and cut costs in their own homes and help reduce the amount of waste produced yearly by significantly lowering the amount of times you will need to change a burnt out lamp.

Many different types of fluorescent lamps and lighting devices are now available for home use. Yu can place fluorescent lamps in just about any application that you would use an incandescent lamp. Ceiling lamps, table lamps and wall scones are very popular uses for fluorescent light bulbs.

Of course the number one use in homes for fluorescent lighting is the kitchen. Since your kitchen is typically the warmest room in your home the fluorescent lamps will not add any heat to the space since fluorescent lamps product little or no heat. Fluorescent lamps can last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs and will help reduce your lighting expenses for the year by having to replace them less often.

In 1856 a man by the name of Heinrich Geissler created a bluish glow from a gas sealed in a tube. This glow was obtained by exciting the gas with an induction coil. Heinrich Geissler was educated as a glassblower he is best remembered as a physicist.

In 1893 during the World’s Fair located at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, fluorescent lights were displayed by Nikola Tesla.

The Moore lamp, a commercial gas discharge lamp was created in 1894 by D. McFarlane Moore. Mr. Moore created this lamp in the hopes that it would compete with the incandescent light bulb created by his former boss Thomas Edison. Mr. Moore’s lamp was created using nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases that emitted a pink and white light.

The Mercury-Vapor lamp which emitted a bluish green color light was shown in 1901 by Peter Cooper Hewitt. Because of the light color that was outputted by this lamp it was deemed unusable for most purposes. This lamp did have some minor success in photography applications where color was not yet an issue, due in great part to its high efficiency output.

The man recognized today as the inventor of the fluorescent lamp was Edmund Germer. In 1926 Mr. Germer and some of his coworkers were able to increase the operating pressure with the fluorescent tube and also proposed coating the inside of the tube with a fluorescent powder that would convert ultraviolet light into a more normal and uniform white colored light.

Around 1938 General Electric bought Mr. Germer’s patent and was able under the direction of George Inman to bring the fluorescent lamp into commercial applications.