Why do energy-saving light bulbs save more energy?

Question

How do they work?

Dammit I KNOW they save energy. BUT WHY??? That's what I'm asking!!!

Answer 1

They use four times less electricity to generate the same amount of light.

They are a form of fluorescent lighting. In this type of bulb, a gas is encased within a glass tube coated with a layer of phosphor. When electricity passes through the gas, it emits ultraviolet rays which cause the phosphor coating to glow. This is more energy efficient because most of the energy is turned into light instead of heat.

Answer 2

First we must distinguish some commonly used terms. Light output should actually be measured in lumens, but before the fluorescent and halogen bulbs came out, all incandescent light output was simply measured in watts. Wattage is really a measure of power usage, which means you know exactly how much energy you will use for every second the incandescent light bulb is on. Some of the most common incandescent light bulbs are rated at 100 or 60 watts. For every 100 watt incandescent bulb, you will get the same amount of light. For every 60 watt incandescent bulb, you will get the same amount of power.

Many years after Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb, it was found that if electricity was projected through inert gas that the gas would glow, and thus the lumens that a watt of electricity could generate was amplified. At the time we were still stuck on using watts to measure light output, manufacturers used the phraseology 'three times the light output per watt'. Halogen bulbs work in an atmosphere of Halogen gases and also amplify light output per watt.

If you would go to the store today, you would likely pick up a flourescent bulb that claims "100 watts of light for 27 watts of power". The fact that certain gases glow in the prescence of electricity means energy savings and savings in the pocketbook.

Answer 3

There are a couple of more ways in which energy saving light bulbs might save a bit more energy. They use more material than incandescent bulbs but they are also supposed to last a lot longer. If you consider the energy needed to refine and transport the materials used in an energy saving 'light bulb' (or to recycle some of the materials and make it) compared with a tungsten filament bulb designed for about 10000 hours life ( longer life filament bulbs are usually even less efficient than these bulbs as they are designed to run with cool filaments) then you should find that the energy saving light bulbs still come out ahead.

The second way you save energy depends on how you are using them , if you actually _want_ your light to heat up the space its in then this doesn't count. If, however, you are working in a stinky-hot humid room and running airco to keep things tolerable then using filament bulbs means you are putting more heat into the room for a given lighting level and then you are using even more energy for the airco to take the heat back out again.

Answer 4

Fluorescent lights are more efficient since you are stimulating a gas to glow rather than a piece of metal (incandescent). More of the energy goes to producing light in a fluorescent light than in an incandescent - more energy is lost to heat in an incandescent light (this is the key). Think of an incandescent light as being similar to an electric stove element oset to high, you get some light and a lot of heat. Fluorescent lights are also made more efficient by the coating on the tube, not just the stimulation of the gas. The idea is that a bulb with a lower wattage will put out the same amount of light (and less heat) as a higher wattage standard bulb. LEDs are even more efficient, but I haven't figure that one out myself - but in flashlights the batteries last 20 times as long as in a regular (incandescent) flashlight. I'll be interested in responses on LEDs myself. Good question!

Answer 5

They are more efficient because they transfer more electrical energy into
light, rather than heat , as is the case with incandescent.
Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are an example. An anode and cathode vaporize mercury at opposite ends of a glass tube, causing them to form an arc across the tube. The X-rays produced by the arc excite the phosphor coating on the inside of the tube, giving off energy in the form of visible light.
The process, although lengthy, creates little electrical resistance and much less heat in return.
An incandescent, which produces light by directly applying electricity to a thin metal wire, is very inefficient because a great deal of energy is used just to get the metal to its white- hot flash-point, in which burning is inhibited by the oxygenless atmosphere in the lamp.
In short, the length of the process from electricity to light does not matter, as long as resistance is at a minimum

Answer 6

let me ccc,well.The reason is that they don't waste a huge part of the enetgy as HEAT-ENERGY.so they convert the electoranic energy to light energy in a very high percentage level.So it's neccerry to say that it's because of kind of the material wich has been use in them as the element.

Answer 7

Simple answer: they don't convert too much electricity into heat; they convert more into light. Heat is the waste.

Answer 8

limited current and just enough voltage to excite the filament.
you can use a rectifying diode.

Answer 9

yes

Answer 10

use less kilowatts.