Electrician

Types of lamps for home lighting - which are better and what is the difference

What are the best bulbs for home lighting? LED, fluorescent, halogen or incandescent? What are the advantages of some and what are the disadvantages of others? How economically viable is it to use one type of lamp or another? Let's try to figure it out.

Incandescent lamps

The most common type of lamps in homes still remain. To this day, they are available in various capacities, come in a variety of sizes and shapes, and are suitable for installation in almost any lighting device, be it a lamp, night light or chandelier.

An incandescent lamp is the simplest electrical light source. It consists of a sealed transparent evacuated flask, a metal base, and a spiral is installed inside the flask - a tungsten filament.

During the operation of the lamp, an electric current flows through its tungsten filament, just causing the filament to heat up to white. That is, the light in such a light bulb is obtained due to a tungsten filament heated by current, which emits visible light. At the same time, light accounts for only 20% of all energy supplied to the light bulb, the remaining 80% falls on heating. In principle, we can say that an incandescent lamp is a heating device that glows well during operation.

Of course, incandescent lamps are rapidly leaving the market, their production is not as intensive as before, but the cost of incandescent lamps is the lowest compared to other types of lamps.

Other types of lamps are more economical to operate than incandescent lamps, some are up to 10 times more economical, and even more reliable at times, but the cost of incandescent lamps is very low compared to other types. Therefore, those people who do not think about the long-term payback continue to buy good old incandescent bulbs for a penny, although in fact they incur losses by overpaying for electricity spent on lighting for many months.

Halogen lamps

Advanced type of incandescent lamp - halogen lamp... Here, the light source is also a tungsten filament incandescent with current, however, it is placed in a flask with halogen vapors. Light output is increased by halogens, and efficiency is slightly increased as a result.

Fluorescent lamps

Energy saving fluorescent lamps- the next step in the evolution of lighting fixtures. It is compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) that are called "energy saving lamps" today. Their consumption is significantly lower than that of incandescent and halogen lamps with a similar luminous flux.

Starting from 2010-2011, the active introduction of fluorescent lamps into home lighting systems began. And if earlier fluorescent lamps in the form of tubes were aesthetically suitable for industrial premises and offices equipped with special lamps for such tubes, then fluorescent lamps under a standard base (like a home incandescent lamp) began to be suitable for living quarters - unscrewed an incandescent lamp, put it in this the same cartridge is an energy-saving fluorescent lamp, and no hassle.

The basis of the functioning of a fluorescent lamp is an electrical discharge in mercury vapor. The ultraviolet radiation that occurs in this case is converted into visible light thanks to a phosphor deposited on the inner walls of the bulb. As a phosphor, special compositions such as calcium halophosphate are used as part of a mixture with auxiliary components.

The luminous efficiency of fluorescent lamps is approximately 5 times higher than that of incandescent lamps, and the service life of a quality fluorescent lamp is measurable in thousands of hours. Nevertheless, even fluorescent lamps are not the most efficient light sources for a home today, not to mention the problem of disposing of faulty lamps with mercury vapor inside.

LED lamp

The crown of the evolution of light sources today - LED bulbs, the most energy efficient... Next, we will visually compare the characteristics of different types of lamps, and this will become more obvious. LEDs are used here as light sources, so the design of an LED lamp is somewhat more complicated than that of an incandescent lamp, and therefore its cost is much higher.

Nevertheless, LED lamps quickly pay off during operation, and much earlier than their service life, which is tens of thousands of hours, expires. At the same time, LED lamps are extremely safe. They do not have a glass bulb that can burst, causing harm to human health, for example, by cutting it, just as there is no mercury vapor and no other harmful components, that is, environmental safety is also ensured. Problems with disposal, if anything, will not arise at all.

Power

From the above table it can be seen that with the same given luminous flux, lamps of different types consume different electrical power, and this power differs at times. Pay particular attention to the fact that an LED lamp, compared to an incandescent lamp, consumes almost 8 times less electricity, and at the same time gives the same amount of light. Imagine how this will affect your electricity bills. As for the compact fluorescent lamp, it is 1.5 times inferior to the LED one.

Do we need heating from a light bulb? Of course not, because there is a heating system for heating the home. It turns out that the more the lamp heats up, the more energy is consumed in a non-targeted way, because we need the lamp for lighting, and not for heating. Meanwhile, an incandescent lamp converts 80% of the power consumption into heat. Halogen heats up to 65%. Luminescent by 15%. LED only 2%.

Hull strength

As for durability, incandescent and halogen lamps have flasks made of fragile thin glass, and if you drop such a lamp, you will immediately have to sweep up small fragments. Fluorescent lamps are equally fragile. They also contain mercury vapors, toxic vapors that will come out if the flask is accidentally broken, and ventilation and sanitization will be required.

LED lamps are in an advantageous position, they are not afraid of shocks, the bulb is usually made of polycarbonate, there are no harmful gases here. If the LED lamp is accidentally dropped, then most likely nothing will happen to it, except that you should not drop it from a great height, so as not to damage the insides.

Life time

In terms of service life, LED lamps are unambiguously superior to any others: on average, LEDs will last 40 times longer than incandescent lamps, they can be considered eternal in this regard. Some manufacturers directly write on the packaging that the lamp is guaranteed to work for 30 or 40 years. Fluorescent lamps are slightly inferior, their manufacturers are confident that the lamp will last 10 years. As for an incandescent lamp, its average life for the conditions of current electrical networks is 1 year.

Easy to replace

To replace a light bulb, it is enough to unscrew it from the socket and screw in a new one. But halogen lamps cannot be screwed in at random. First of all, you need to understand that a halogen lamp heats up a lot during operation, for example, a 40 watt lamp heats up to 250 ° C. No, we are not talking now about the need to wait for the lamp to cool before unscrewing it, something else is important here.

When you install a new halogen lamp, your hands should be extremely clean, and it is better to use a napkin in general, because any greasy spot on the bulb will necessarily burn out and a burned trace will appear, the light will be spoiled. Still such a trace will lead to local overheating of the flask, and it can crack. LED and fluorescent lamps do not heat up so much, so they can be twisted and twisted even with bare hands.

Security aspects

There are a couple of aspects to consider when talking about security. First, the quality of the light. Light quality is best with incandescent, halogen and LED bulbs. Fluorescent lamps have harmful flicker that irritates the nervous system, and, as a rule, they are distorted. Secondly, the content of mercury vapor is by no means in favor of fluorescent lamps. That is, in terms of safety, everyone benefits except fluorescent ones.

What is the bottom line

The result is unambiguous. From the point of view of efficiency and safety, LED lamps come first, then incandescent lamps (safe, but gluttonous), and finally fluorescent lamps (flicker, poorly transmit colors, contain mercury).

Consider the financial side

Let's say there are 15 75-watt incandescent lamps in the apartment, which you want to replace with LED ones. Let the lamps burn for about 4 hours a day. This means that lighting accounts for 15 * 75 * 4 * 30 = 135 kWh per month. Let's say the cost of electricity in your region is 5 rubles per 1 kWh. This means that 675 rubles a month just for the light.

If you switch to LED lamps with a power of 7.5 times less (as noted above), then the bill will be only 90 rubles. Let the replacement of lamps cost you 3450 rubles, then with a difference in bills of 585 rubles, the lamps will pay off in half a year! And this is with the estimated price of the LED lamp at 230 rubles. The benefits are obvious. If we now take into account that LED lamps will last 30 years, then you yourself understand what colossal savings we are talking about.

Three main advantages of LED lamps

LED bulbs are eternal compared to incandescent bulbs that burn out quickly

LED bulbs pay off quickly despite their high cost.

LED bulbs are environmentally friendly and not easy to break.

Best for Home Lighting - LED Bulbs

In conclusion, we can unequivocally say that LED lamps are best suited for home lighting from all points of view. Even if they seem expensive at first glance, consider the ROI. The more lighting fixtures in your home, the faster new bulbs will pay off.

If we leave everything as it is, then it turns out that the bills for electricity spent on inefficient lighting, in total, will eat up much more money than it will take just once to spend on the purchase of new efficient light bulbs.