Sunday, January 3, 2010

Energy Saving Lamps: Bright Lamp With Minimal Usage Of Electricity


By Jeremy Pabloccis

Many people are concerned that the energy reserves that are currently identifiable on the planet will be unable to hold up due to the tremendous energy consumption levels of industrialized nations. Using energy saving lamps is one of those actions that can create a huge difference when practiced by millions of users worldwide. Governments are even getting involved in phasing out energy hog lamps and replacing them with those that consume less energy.

Incandescent Lights

The typical incandescent bulb gives off heat at the same time as it gives off light. A standard design is made of a globe of very thing clear or opaque glass with a thin length of wire, called a filament, enclosed. When electricity is routed through the filament, it heats up quickly to a temperature of about 4500 degrees. At such temperatures, the metal wire gives off white light. Unfortunately, only about ten percent of the electrical energy sent through the filament manifests as light. The other ninety percent is wasted as heat. Incandescent lamps are very inefficient.

Low Energy Fluorescent Lamps

The concept behind the fluorescent bulb is completely different. A fluorescent bulb has a base that attaches to the power supply, an electrode that releases its stream of electrons, and phosphor-coated glass tubes that holds mercury.

Fluorescent lamps work by generating moving atoms, thanks to the power circuit. The excited electrons that result enter the glass tubes and collide with atoms of mercury. The energy from the collision with mercury atoms is released as ultraviolet light. The inside of the glass tubes is coated with phosphor. When the UV light strikes the phosphor, it is converted into light within the visible range.

Fluorescent lights last about ten times as long as an incandescent light and use only about twenty percent of the energy, since it is not released as heat. That's a real impact on a pocketbook. Savings from the use of a single fluorescent lamp can be as much as a ton of carbon dioxide over the lifetime of the lamp. That is a real action item to reduce global warming.

Other Energy-Conscious Bulbs

Another developing technology is the production of light-emitting diodes (LED) as a source of light. LED's are similar to standard incandescent lamps, except they use the electrical current directly instead of through a filament. LED's are more expensive to produce, but last much longer than standard bulbs. Lifetime hours have been estimated as high as 100,000 hours of use. With no loss of energy due to heat, the lights are inexpensive to operate.

Electric Lamp Usage

It is hard to imagine what the planet would be like without electric lights. They provide light, warnings and decoration in homes, on highways and in businesses. Through increasing technology, it's a relief to know that we can use lights for all these purposes and still reduce the amount of energy consumed.

The use of energy saving lamps is just one of the ways in which you can reduce the waste of the non-renewable energy sources available to you. What may seem like an insignificant action on the part of a single individual is multiplied when joined with millions of others doing the same energy saving action.

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