There are three main types of lamps or bulbs that are commonly used as ceiling lighting to light the home or office. These are fluorescent, incandescent and high intensity discharge lamps.
Throughout the light bulb's relatively brief history, incandescent bulbs have been the most frequently used in home applications because they are cheap to buy. Incandescent sources of light, however, are somewhat inefficient in their ability to convert electrical energy to visible light. For this reason, incandescent lights add unnecessary electrical expense to peoples' electricity bills. Increased electricity bills aren't good for your pocketbook and they're certainly not good for the environment either.
Over the years, fluorescent and high intensity discharge bulbs have become more popular and are used much more often in commercial and industrial applications. Though their initial cost is generally more than incandescent bulbs, they are much more energy efficient and also last much longer than incandescent lamps. Over time this means that both high intensity lamps and fluorescent lamps cost less money to operate and own.
Because of some major innovations over the last few years in the abilities of fluorescent lamps to render colors, as well as the increased availability of small fluorescent bulbs called 'CFLs' or compact fluorescent lamps.
These factors all combined to make fluorescent lighting a very attractive and viable options for both commercial and home lighting use. A general rule of thumb is that fluorescent lamps will produce three to four times the amount of light that comparable incandescent lamps will produce.
Another way of looking at the inefficiency of incandescent lamps is that they are the least expensive to buy, yet the most expensive to operate. Incandescent lamps have the shortest life spans of all the common types of lighting. This can certainly make them less attractive when replacing bulbs can mean climbing to all sorts of precarious positions to change dozens of bulbs.
Yet incandescent lighting is still used because it's easy to find, it's more common for workers to have experience with incandescent lighting, and well, it's not going anywhere yet, so you may as well familiarize yourself with it.
There are three most common types of incandescent lamps. These are what's referred to as 'standard incandescent', tungsten halogen and reflector lamps.
Standard incandescent or 'a-type light bulbs' are the epitome of incandescent pros and cons, with the shorter life span and cheapest purchase price. It is a good idea to try to replace this type of lamp with compact fluorescents.
Tungsten halogen incandescent lighting is newer and able to achieve better energy efficiency than standard incandescent lighting. The cost is more than balanced with improved light output over the standard a-type bulbs.
Fluorescent lighting is used primarily indoors and is used for both ambient or general ceiling lighting as well as task lighting. Fluorescent lighting is nearly 5 times as efficient as incandescent lighting and fluorescent lamps last about ten times longer than their incandescent counterparts.
And then there are ever improving fluorescent lamps to try. As each improvement boosts efficiency that much further, it's fun to experiment with these new fluorescent bulbs as they come out. But do be careful, as these can be pricey when they first hit the market.
Compact fluorescent lamps are easily the most significant lighting innovation that has been developed for homes in several years. These types of lamp combine the efficiency of fluorescent lighting with the ease of use and popularity of incandescent fixtures.
