The temperatures have regularly been on the wrong side of freezing, and the sun has generally set by the time I leave the office. The result is that when I get home in the evenings, the first thing I do is switch on every light and heater available, switch on the electric blanket, and start cooking a nice warm meal on the stove.
With all these appliances and lights burning, it got me thinking about the importance of using energy efficient appliances and lighting. I hope to unpack the latter in this article.
A "normal light bulb" is also known as an incandescent light bulb. These are the bulbs that we all grew up with that have a very thin filament inside a glass sphere. They typically come in sizes like "60 watt," "75 watt” and so on.
The basic idea behind these industrial-age bulbs is simple. Electricity runs through the filament and because the filament is so thin, it offers resistance to the electricity, and this resistance turns electrical energy into heat. There is enough heat to make the filament white-hot, and white-hot equals light.
The problem with incandescent light bulbs is that the heat wastes a lot of electricity. Heat is not light, and the purpose of the light bulb is to produce light, so all of the energy spent creating heat is wasted. As a result, incandescent bulbs are very inefficient.
But there is an alternative! Thanks to the compact fluorescent bulb, lighting has been one of the great success stories in energy efficiency in the last decade. Like the fluorescent lamps found in commercial buildings, a compact fluorescent bulb is a tube. However, the residential versions are narrower and twisted around like a koeksister.
A fluorescent bulb uses a completely different method to produce light.
This is a trick similar to the one used by creatures like fireflies and glow-worms, whose bodies contain chemicals that make "cool light" without any heat. There are electrodes at both ends of a fluorescent tube, with various gases inside the tube. A stream of electrons flows through the gas from one electrode to the other. These electrons bump into the mercury atoms and excite them. As the mercury atoms move from the excited state back to the unexcited state, they give off ultraviolet photons. These photons hit the phosphor coating on the inside of the fluorescent tube, and this phosphor creates visible light.
It sounds complicated, and without a scientific background, it probably is! The important thing is that the end result is an exceptionally efficient source of light.
There is only one drawback with compact fluorescent bulbs, and that is that they cost a lot more than incandescents. The upside to the higher cost is that they last a very long time. The expected lifetime of most compact fluorescent bulbs is 10,000 hours. In contrast to the long lifetimes of compact fluorescent bulbs, incandescent bulbs are rated to last from 800 to 1,000 hours. It would take 10 or more incandescent bulbs to match the life of one compact fluorescent.
If you decide to get on the energy efficiency bandwagon, lighting is an obvious and easy place to start.
So have a look around your house at your existing choice of bulbs; you might just see the light at the end of the energy efficiency tunnel!
Rob Paddock is the operations director for Paddocks. Feel free to visit the website at www.paddocks.co.za or for free sectional title advice go to www.sto.co.za
Readers' Comments Have a comment about this article? Email us now.
Of course everything you share in this piece is true. I bought a house two years ago that is fitted with fluorescent bulbs everywhere except in the kitchen. If there is one thing I want to change in my new house then it is those bulbs. They simply do not provide enough light and to me this makes them a failure. They last longer, yes, they use less energy, yes, but their main function is to make light, and they fail to do that. – Albert Kotzé
Your explanation about energy saving lights and flourescent lights confuse me. You have not elaborated on the energy saver. I thought they were one and the same. – Rob Paddock
I'm just a little concerned with how this is could possibly be considered 'News', incandescent light bulbs are even more difficult to purchase now than the "new" florescent bulbs - surely we are a little ahead of this and therefore news should be on actual new ground breaking products that readers could do well to learn about... No mention was even made in the out-dated article about the need to recycle these "new" florescent bulbs due to their mercury content! – Brenda
One drawback never seems to be mentioned and that is the fact that the light emitted from energy saving globes is not suitable for areas where you would want to read. – Lloyd
Mr. Paddock forgets the second draw back. That’s a big one.
When you disposal the energy saving bulb, the Mercury inside does more harm to the environment than all the energy you did waste with a "normal" light bulb. – E. V. Valtysson
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