Flourescent Lighting 175

Fluorescent Lighting


Typically, when we buy light bulbs for our home fixtures, we're going for incandescent light. The small filament in the center of an incandescent light bulb actually resists electrical currents, and in doing so, gets "white hot," or glows.

Fluorescent light tubes have an inner phosphor coating and are filled with a mercury-based gas. When the light is on, electrodes from each end of the fluorescent tube flow through the gas, exciting the mercury particles enough to give off ultraviolet photons. The photons then bounce off the inner coating and, voila - light.

Fluorescent lights are more efficient than incandescent lights because they lack heat; much energy is spent heating a filament to produce light, while fluorescent lights don't rely on heat to produce light at all.

Fluorescent lights are very bright, so try them in your kitchen, bathroom, or any place where you really need to see well.


All About Fluorescent Lighting

A fluorescent light uses electricity to stimulate mercury vapor in argon or neon gas, which results in a plasma that produces short-wave ultraviolet light. That light, in turn, causes a phosphor to produce visible light. Unlike incandescent light, fluorescent light uses a ballast (a device that produces electricity) to regulate the current.