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1. Incandescent Lamps
This is the everyday lighting produced with normal light bulbs, available in clear
or frosted, clear being particularly suited where the filament can act as a starry
effect like in chandeliers and frosted meant for use in fittings with shades.
Although the cheapest lamp to buy they tend to distort true colour tending to
give a warmish glow but can make a room feel warm. They are also the least energy efficient
with approximately 95% of the power consumed by an emitted as heat, rather than as
visible light and will only last on average 1000 hours.
2. Low Voltage Lamps
Low voltage lighting is becoming increasingly popular for domestic application
particularly in living areas, kitchens and gardens as the lamps offer good colour
rendering properties, producing a crisp white light. It also has the benefit of
reduced running costs giving roughly 2-3 times the light output, a 50w lamp is
roughly the equivalent of 125w of incandescent light. Low voltage lamps are manufactured
to last at least 2000 hours.
3. Fluorescent Lamps
Fluorescent lighting is far more energy efficient than incandescent lighting, this is
because a greater proportion of power is converted to light and a smaller proportion
is converted to heat. Many people find the color spectrum produced by some fluorescent
lamps to be displeasing although lamps are available in a wide range of colour rendering
properties, the most common
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being white, warm white or cool white. Although the initial
cost of the lamp is more expensive this is more than compensated for by lower energy
consumption over its life giving roughly 5 times the light output, a 25w lamp is
roughly the equivalent of 125w of incandescent light and will last for at least
10,000 hours.
4. Discharge Lamps
Commonly used for industrial and commercial purposes as the lighting produced is high
output, making it a powerful and efficient light source. This type of lighting produces
an almost white light with excellent colour rendering properties. Although one of the most
expensive types of lighting, this is one the most energy efficient giving roughly 8 times the light
output, a 50w lamp is roughly the equivalent of 400w of incandescent light and will
last for at least 6,000 hours.
5. LED Lamps
This is the latest type of lighting being developed and is slowly changing the face of
lighting. Although yet to achieve the brightness of incandescent lighting, due to their
tiny size, when used in a cluster LED's are bright enough to use for illumination and
different colours can be used together to create colour changing effects. LED's are far more
energy efficient than incandescent lamps and although they are difficult to gave an exact
match they produce roughly 5 times the light output, a 1w LED is roughly equivalent to 5w
of incandescent light will last at least 100,000 hours.
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