subject: Things You Didn't Know About Energy Saving Light Bulbs [print this page] Invented in the late 19th century and also known as Compact Fluorescent Lamps were invented by Peter Cooper Hewitt. They can bring a saving up to 75% as compared to ordinary metal filament light bulbs.
CFL can be operate both by AC and DC power and their function consists of gas enclosed in a glass tube which becomes active due to electric current reaction when it reacts in addition with the phosphorescent coating inside the glass coating. The low heat emission results into more life up to 15000 hours as compared to maximum of 1000 hours of ordinary tungsten filament bulbs.
A very small amount of current is sufficient to react with the phosphorescent coating inside the glass tube coating therefore results into more power saving. In addition, as there is no metal involved which may get fatigued and get melted due to electric current which generates heat, therefore it has more life.
The CFL bulbs produce less heat as compared to other bulbs therefore are more health friendly as well as can be installed even in those places where temperature control is a primary issue, for example, medical facilities, laboratories, cold storage dumps, paint shops, food stores, medical stores and etc.
General electric for the first time marketed these bulbs in 1930 but a large commercial scale production was started in 1976.
All CFL bulbs do use some small percentage of mercury in them, therefore there dumping is not so convenient and must be disposed off in a closed container. Otherwise it may cause health hazard.
But this is only a small disadvantage which it may cause but totally dependent upon or attitude. On the whole, in a running cost of only 2 tungsten filament light bulbs, a whole house of can be littered with CFL bulbs with an additional advantage of 15 times more life. Normally a 25W CFL bulb generated light equivalent to 300W of ordinary bulb.
