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Light Bulbs

The variety of light bulbs that have developed over the years (since 1802) is

enormous. Light bulbs come in every shape and size and designed for any task you can imagine. The most common, your every day bulb are know as tungsten filament bulbs but Halogen, LED, fluorescent, neon and others are increasing in numbers.

Tungsten, the most common type, range from 25 to 150 Watts and have a variety of finishes: clear; pearlized an every color under the sun. Let's look at how the work:

light bulb
  1. Active terminal to bring power in to the bulb
  2. Neatural terminal to bring power out of the bulb
  3. Glass stem inside to hold the filament
  4. Support wire
  5. Contact wire out of filament
  6. Filament (Lights up when current passes through)
  7. Inert gas
  8. Glass bulb
  9. Contact wire into the filament

Fittings

There are two type of fittings for bulbs

light bulb bayonet
The Bayonet
light bulb twist screw
The Screw

Bulb Shapes

light bulb shapes

Types

  • Tungsten
  • Halogen
  • Fluorescent lamps
  • Compact fluorescent lamps
  • LED
  • Neon

Being Green - The environmentally Friendly Options

When looking for the green option in light bulbs (and you should, this is one of the biggest easiest ways you can have an impact) you need to look at how much bag you get for your buck, aka how much light (lumens) you get for the power you use (watt's). In the traditional bulbs almost 90% of the power is lost as heat, that's a lot of waste. Recognizing this many countries have started to ban these (Australia, Ireland and Canada) in favor of the new compact fluorescent lamps or LED lights.

The compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) use approx 1/5 to 1/4 of the power to produce the same amount of light. eg a 100 Watt normal bulb produces the same amount of lights as a 20 Watt CFL bulb. CFL bulbs also last about 15 times as long meaning less rubbish. Pretty impressive huh. The downside to these is they contain mercury, which is pretty toxic. LED's however have even better efficiencies and life spans without the toxic effects. At the moment however, they are still working towards being cost effective and available in the quantities needed.