Incandescent

•Uses lots ofenergy

•Generates heat – hot to the touch

•Needs to be replaced often

•Shatters easily

•Light quality is very consistent and close to the quality of Sun light.

Fluorescent

•Cool to the touch

•Lasts longer than Incandescent

•Uses less energy than Incandescent

•Still shatters easily

•Contains dangerous mercury – poses a hazard when brokenor during normal disposal.

LED 

•Cool to the touch

•Lasts longer than Fluorescents

•Uses less energy than Fluorescents

•Does NOT shatter

•LED quality is not consistent during production and needs tobe classified and sorted at different quality levels after production.

Incandescence

uses heat (thermal radiation) to produce light. Sunlight and Candle-light are generated in this way. Incandescent Light Bulbs also generate heat (ther- mal radiation) through a “fila- ment”-thefilamentheatsupto

produce light like a candle.

The great advantage is that this type of light quality and color is generally very consistent between most brands. Its color qualities are also very close what the Sun produces.

This type of bulb requires lots of energy which is wasted as dissipated heat (90%). Also, the intense heat causes faster degradation of the filament leading to a shorter lifespan of the bulb.

The great disadvantage is that Halogen lights are a type of Incandescent Light but contain Halogen gas inside the bulb to slow down degradation of the filament, allowing it to withstand more heat, and making it suitable for high intensity lights (e.g. car headlights).

Fluorescent Lighting

These lights use a mercury vapor (steam) inside the tube; electricity is applied within the tube, which causes the mercury vapor to emit UV light, or more accurately UV radiation. The UV radiation hits the insidesurface of the tube which is coated with a phosphor material. The UV radiation causes the phosphor to glow.

Their advantage is that they are cooler and more energy efficient than Incandescent.

Their disadvantage is that Mercury is dangerous – if the bulb is broken, it can present a health hazard. Used bulb dis- posal is also problematic.

LEDLighting

Early LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) were used mainly for small indicator lights for applications like display panels  and they have been used in this way since the 1960s and they looked like the bulbs at the top of this paragraph. During the early 2000s, we began to see LED technology used for environment lighting as well (e.g.homes,offices,factories, schools) and LED bulbs began to look much like our LEDs use semiconductors. Yes, it’s similar to the material used on processors for circuit boards. However, thematerials used in LEDs are for the purpose of producinglight. In addition to being cooler and more energy efficient (like Fluorescent Lighting), LEDs have an added value of lasting a VERY long time, in addition to being shatter/shockproof.