Incandescent Light Bulbs

Changing a light bulb is the easiest thing in the world and choosing one might seem that way, too. You want light in your room and that’s what a bulb does; it emits light. But, surprisingly, there is a bit of thinking involved when deciding on what kind of incandescent light bulb to buy. Today, we’ll look at one type of bulb: incandescent.

Currently, bulbs are measured in both watts and lumens, but one is not equal to the other. Most people look at watts when picking out a new light bulb because it is the most familiar. This unit of measurement measures a light bulb’s energy use, while the lumen measures its brightness. Lumens have only recently been introduced onto packaging labels, but are quickly becoming an important factor in the decision of the consumer.

Before we look into the many types of light bulbs available on the market, we should familiarize ourselves with some terminology, listed below.

Wattage: amount of energy consumed by source
Lumens: amount of light emitted by source
Efficacy: lumens per watt
Footcandles: amount of light reaching subject
The Types of Incandescent Bulbs

Incandescent light bulbs are the most commonly used bulb and the least expensive. These types glow when an electrical current passed through a filament, or coiled fine wire. Incandescent light bulbs produce a high brightness that is matched by large energy consumption. It is best to use this type for task lighting. Incandescent bulbs have a light expectancy of about 800 hours and are often used with a dimmer.

Incandescent light bulbs come in three flavors: the General Service, the Reflectorized, and the Halogen. The three basic shapes of the general service (A), or basic incandescent, are the General, the Globe, and the Decorative.

Reflectorized incandescent light bulbs are internally coated with a reflective substance that directs light in a single direction instead of scattering it like so many leaves in the wind. Of this type, there are two sub-types.

The Reflector (R) bulbs have twice as many footcandles as the general service of the wattage.

The Parabolic Reflector (PAR) bulbs exercise more precision in directing the light. PARs produce
four times as many footcandles as the general service bulb and are often used in recessed and
recessed and track lighting.

Halogen lights are superior to any other kind of incandescent light bulb. They produce a brighter light per watt than the standard bulb and have a longer life. Halogen lights are favored because they emit the closest thing to natural daylight. Because of their high footcandle count, colors appear sharper. Halogen lights, however, are more expensive and produce large amounts of heat; they can be dimmed, however. Use a halogen light where the quality of light and energy savings is important.

In the next article, we’ll look at fluorescent, HIDs, and LEDs.

Posted in Blog | Tagged incandescent, light bulb, lighting fixtures, Lumen, watt