Types of Light Bulbs and Their Uses

By: Jonathan Z. Kremer

There are many different types of light bulbs around, and they were all designed with a certain use in mind. What
follows is a short description of each major type of bulb commonly found in the home, office and factory, how they
work, and their uses.

Incandescent
These are the standard bulbs that most people are familiar with. Incandescent bulbs work by using electricity to
heat a tungsten filament in the bulb until it glows. The filament is either in a vacuum or in a mixture of
argon/nitrogen gas. Most of the energy consumed by the bulb is given off as heat, causing its Lumens per Watt
performance to be low. Because of the filament's high temperature, the tungsten tends to evaporate and collect on
the sides of the bulb. The inherent imperfections in the filament causes it to become thinner unevenly. When a bulb
is turned on, the sudden surge of energy can cause the thin areas to heat up much faster than the rest of the
filament, which in turn causes the filament to break and the bulb to burn out.

Incandescent bulbs produce a steady warm, light that is good for most household applications. A standard
incandescent bulb can last for 700-1000 hours, and can be used with a dimmer. Soft white bulbs use a special
coating inside the glass bulb to better diffuse the light; but the light color is not changed.

Halogen
Halogen bulbs are a variation of incandescent bulb technology. These bulbs work by passing electricity through a
tungsten filament, which is enclosed in a tube containing halogen gas. This halogen gas causes a chemical reaction
to take place which removes the tungsten from the wall of the glass and deposits it back onto the filament. This
extends the life of the bulb. In order for the chemical reaction to take place, the filament needs to be hotter than
what is needed for incandescent bulbs. The good news is that a hotter filament produces a brilliant white light and
is more efficient (more lumens per watt).
The bad news is that a hotter filament means that the tungsten is evaporating that much faster. Therefore a denser,
more expensive fill gas (krypton), and a higher pressure, are used to slow down the evaporation. This means that a
thicker, but smaller glass bulb (envelope) is needed, which translates to a higher cost. Due to the smaller glass
envelope (bulb), the halogen bulb gets much hotter than other bulbs. A 300 watt bulb can reach over 300 degrees C.
Therefore attention must be paid to where halogen bulbs are used, so that they don't accidentally come in contact
with flammable materials, or burn those passing by.
Care must be taken not to touch the glass part of the bulb with our fingers. The oils from our fingers will weaken
the glass and shorten the bulbs life. Many times this causes the bulb to burst when the filament finally burns out.
To summarize, the halogen has the advantage of being more efficient (although not by much) and having longer
life than the incandescent bulb. They are relatively small in size and are dimmable. The disadvantages are that they
are more expensive, and burn at a much higher temperature, which could possibly be a fire hazard in certain areas.

Fluorescent
These bulbs work by passing a current through a tube filled with argon gas and mercury. This produces ultraviolet
radiation that bombards the phosphorous coating causing it to emit light (see: How Fluorescents Work). Bulb life
is very long - 10,000 to 20,000 hours. Fluorescent bulbs are also very efficient, producing very little heat. A
common misconception is that all fluorescent lamps are neutral or cool in color appearance and do not have very
good color-rendering ability. This is largely due to the fact that historically the "cool white" fluorescent lamp was
the industry standard. It had a very cool color appearance (4200K) and poor CRI rating (62). This is simply no
longer the case. Regarding color, a wide variety of fluorescent lamps (T12, T8, T5, etc.), using rare-earth triphosphor technology, offer superior color rendition (as high as 95) and a wide range of color temperature choices
(from 2700K to 5000K and higher). Fluorescent bulbs are ideal for lighting large areas where little detail work will
be done (e.g. basements, storage lockers, etc.). With the new type bulbs, and style of fixtures coming out,
fluorescents can be used in most places around the home. Most fluorescent bulb cannot be used with dimmers.

Note that fluorescent bulbs need components called ballasts to provide the right amount of voltage. There are
primarily two types - magnetic and electronic. Electronic ballasts solve some of the flickering and humming
problems associated with magnetic ballast, and are more efficient, but cost more to purchase. Some ballasts need a
starter to work along with it. Starters are sort of small mechanical timers, needed to cause a stream of electrons
to flow across the tube and ionize the mercury vapor (see: How Fluorescents Work).
On tube type fluorescent bulbs, the letter T designates that the bulb is tubular in shape. The number after it
expresses the diameter of the bulb in eighths of an inch.

Compact Fluorescent Lamps

AWG
American Wire Gauge (AWG) is a standardized wire gauge system used predominantly in the United States to note the diameter of electrically conducting wire.
The general rule of thumb is for every 6 gauge decrease the wire diameter doubles and every 3 gauge decrease doubles the cross sectional area.
Diameter
A mil is a unit of length equal to 0.001 inch (a "milli-inch" or a "thousandth of one inch") ie. 1 mil = 0.001".
Resistance
The resistance noted in the table above is for copper wire conductor. For a given current, you can use the noted resistance and apply Ohm's Law to calculate the
voltage drop across the conductor.
Current (Ampacity)
The current ratings shown in the table are for power transmission and have been determined using the rule of 1 amp per 700 circular mils, which is a very
conservative rating. For reference, the National Electrical Code (NEC) notes the following ampacity for copper wire at 30 Celsius:
14 AWG - maximum of 20 Amps in free air, maximum of 15 Amps as part of a 3 conductor cable;
12 AWG - maximum of 25 Amps in free air, maximum of 20 Amps as part of a 3 conductor cable;
10 AWG - maximum of 40 Amps in free air, maximum of 30 Amps as part of a 3 conductor cable.
Skin Effect and Skin Depth
Skin effect is the tendency of an alternating electric current (AC) to distribute itself within a conductor so that the current density near the surface of the conductor
is greater than that at its core. That is, the electric current tends to flow at the "skin" of the conductor. The skin effect causes the effective resistance of the
conductor to increase with the frequency of the current. The maximum frequency show is for 100% skin depth (no skin effects).