This is a portion of a post on MultiBriefs Exclusive.
We’ve been using incandescent lighting since Thomas Edison developed the first practical light bulb more than a century ago. In today’s world where innovation moves at the speed of light, lighting innovation ironically moved at a snail’s pace until the last couple of decades. Today, innovation has made lighting the epitome of low-hanging fruit for energy misers. There are basically four types of lighting: incandescent, halogen, fluorescent and light-emitting diodes (LED).
- Incandescent lighting — This is the “Thomas Edison special” we grew up with that works by heating a filament wire until it glows. Very inefficient, incandescent bulbs convert less than 5 percent of the energy used into visible light, and their lifespan is only 1,000 hours.
- Halogen lamp — Halogens, like incandescents, use a tungsten filament, but it is encased in a quartz “envelope” because the filament is so close it would melt glass. The gas inside combines with tungsten vapor. Because the filament gets hotter, there’s more light per unit of energy. However, because they emit as much as 90 percent of their radiant heat energy outward, halogens can pose a serious fire hazard when near combustible materials like drapes, paper, picture frames, etc.