Often listen to my friends say, incandescent lamp, a halogen lamp, fluorescent lamp, energy-saving lamp, LED lamp what exactly is? For this reason, I write a special article to share today.

Tips: it takes about three minutes to read this article.

When you do not really understand the difference between them, I thin you must think so.

1), The incandescent lamp is best, but the light bulb is hard to buy.

2), A halogen lamp is an upgraded version of an incandescent lamp, with halogen lamp best.

3), The use of energy-saving bulbs can be, as long as the color temperature can reach the standard, but it seems to have radiation;

4), Use a mobile phone to illuminate the LED light, as long as there is no flickering on the screen.

Now I’ll give you a brief introduction.

Edison carbon filament lamps, early 1880s

In addressing the question of who invented the incandescent lamp, historians Robert Friedel and Paul Israel list 22 inventors of incandescent lamps prior to Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison.

They conclude that Edison’s version was able to outstrip the others because of a combination of three factors: an effective incandescent material, a higher vacuum than others were able to achieve (by use of the Sprengel pump) and a high resistance that made power distribution from a centralized source economically viable.

Historian Thomas Hughes has attributed Edison’s success to his development of an entire, integrated system of electric lighting.

Since incandescent light bulbs use more energy than alternatives such as CFLs and LED lamps, many governments have introduced measures to ban their use, by setting minimum efficacy standards higher than can be achieved by incandescent lamps. Measures to ban light bulbs have been implemented in the European Union, the United States, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada and Australia, among others. 

The halogen lamp can be seen as an upgraded version of the incandescent lamp.

Halogen lamp, abbreviated as a halogen bulb or halogen lamp, also known as tungsten halogen bulb, quartz bulb, is a variant of an incandescent lamp. The principle is to inject iodide or bromine halogen gas into the bulb. At high temperature, the sublimated tungsten wire is chemically acted with halogen. The tungsten after cooling will be re-solidified on the tungsten wire, forming a balanced cycle to avoid premature rupture of tungsten wire. So halogen bulbs live longer than incandescent lamps (almost 4 times the incandescent lamp), and because the filament can work at higher temperatures, it gets higher brightness, higher color temperature, and higher luminous efficiency.

As an upgraded version of an incandescent lamp, halogen lamp has all the advantages of an incandescent lamp: color light is closest to sunlight color, good color rendering, even spectrum without abrupt. But the halogen lamp also inherits the shortcomings of the incandescent lamp: short life (although it is longer than the incandescent lamp), low luminous efficiency (although it is already higher than the incandescent lamp), and the halogen lamp is due to the same heat radiation source, and the light is still high, and it is absolutely unavailable to touch after the light is in or after the light is put out.

In addition, incandescent lamps and halogen lamps have a small amount of ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) radiation problems. If you want to achieve an ideal eye color, you must use a large power bulb, so the infrared heat is large and long and close to the distance. It is easy to cause facial skin problems, plus ultraviolet radiation, and may even lead to extreme conditions such as sun exposure dermatitis. So if you want to use a halogen lamp as a lamp for a desk lamp, you need to have at least a UV protection - in a simple way, it's the best part of the lamp that has a layer of grit or a partially grind and anti UV glass panel.

A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, which produces short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor coating on the inside of the lamp to glow. 

A fluorescent lamp converts electrical energy into useful light much more efficiently than incandescent lamps. 

The typical luminous efficacy of fluorescent lighting systems is 50–100 lumens per watt, several times the efficacy of incandescent bulbs with comparable light output.

Fluorescent lamp fixtures are more costly than incandescent lamps because they require a ballast to regulate the current through the lamp, but the lower energy cost typically offsets the higher initial cost. 

Compact fluorescent lamps are now available in the same popular sizes as incandescents and are used as an energy-saving alternative in homes.

Compared to general-service incandescent lamps giving the same amount of visible light, CFLs use one-fifth to one-third the electric power, and last eight to fifteen times longer. 

A CFL has a higher purchase price than an incandescent lamp, but can save over five times its purchase price in electricity costs over the lamp’s lifetime. Like all fluorescent lamps, CFLs contain toxic mercury  which complicates their disposal. 

In many countries, governments have banned the disposal of CFLs together with regular garbage. 

These countries have established special collection systems for CFLs and other hazardous waste.

There are two types of CFLs: integrated and non-integrated lamps. Integrated lamps combine the tube and ballast in a single unit. These lamps allow consumers to replace incandescent lamps easily with CFLs. Integrated CFLs work well in many standard incandescent light fixtures, reducing the cost of converting to fluorescent. 

LED is the abbreviation of English light emitting diode (light emitting diode). Light-emitting diodes are solid-state semiconductor devices that convert electrical energy into visible light. They can directly convert electricity into light.

The heart of LED is a semiconductor chip with one end attached to a scaffold, a negative one at one end, the other end connected to the positive pole of the power supply so that the whole chip is encapsulated by epoxy. The semiconductor wafer is composed of two parts, part of which is a P-type semiconductor, in which the hole is dominant, the other is an N-type semiconductor, and the main part is electron on this side. But when the two semiconductors connect, they form a P-N junction between them. When the current acts on the chip through the wire, the electrons are pushed into the P zone, in the P area the electrons are combined with the holes, and then the energy is emitted in the form of photons, which is the principle of LED luminescence.

Because the heat of the LED lamp is not high, the electrical energy is converted into light energy as much as possible, so LED and so on are often called "LED energy-saving lamp". When buying energy-saving lamps, we must distinguish between two completely different light sources, LED and CFL.

Also known as an energy-saving lamp, compared with CFL lamp, LED lamp environmental protection does not contain mercury, can be recycled, which is perhaps a major driving force for countries to vigorously develop LED lamps.

LED lamps have many advantages. The main points are:

1), Environmental protection: small glare, no radiation, no harmful substances in use.

Long life and stable performance. 

2), There are no disadvantages such as filament luminescence, easy burning, thermal deposition and light decay.

3), Variable conversion: LED light source can use red, green, blue three basic color principle, under the control of computer technology, produce different colors, intensity and color temperature.

If you feel this article is good, you are welcome to share it.