Incandescent lights use more energy than fluorescent lights.
The lights you choose impact how the room looks and how much your electric bill costs. Incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs represent two common lighting options. Incandescent lights produce light by sending electricity through a filament while fluorescent bulbs produce light by sending electricity through a tube filled with gas.
Incandescent Lights
Incandescent lights are inexpensive and come in a range of colors and sizes. You can use incandescent bulbs with dimmer lights. Incandescent lights also effectively render colors and objects. However, incandescent bulbs use energy inefficiently and cost more money to run than fluorescent lights. They also burn out much quicker. However, these bulbs can be disposed of in the garbage. In addition, incandescent bulbs produce heat, which may increase air conditioning bills or cause a fire hazard in enclosed spaces.
Fluorescent Lights
Fluorescent lights, including larger linear fluorescent lights and smaller compact fluorescent lights, are the most energy efficient lighting option. Although fluorescent lights initially cost more lights, their low operating costs and long life makes them much more cost-effective than incandescent lighting. The color rendering of fluorescent lights varies, however, and fluorescent lights usually don't work in dimming fixtures. In addition, because fluorescent lights contain trace amounts of mercury, they should be recycled instead of thrown away.
Comparing Wattage
Fluorescent lights use much fewer watts than incandescent lights to produce the same amount of light. Fluorescent lights lose less energy in the form of heat. For example, a compact fluorescent bulb that uses 15 watts is roughly equivalent to a 60-watt incandescent bulb. A 20-watt bulb equals a 75-watt incandescent bulb.
Other Lighting Options
Incandescent and fluorescent lights aren't your only options. You can also choose from halogen bulbs, which produce a very bright, pure light by passing electricity through a tungsten filament located in a tube of gas, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which create several colors of light from the electronic motion of particles. Halogen and LED lights both use less energy than incandescent lights, although they aren't as efficient as compact fluorescent bulbs.
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