Discount Fluorescent Light Bulbs Advice

Fluorescent light bulbs come in many shapes and sizes; this is a quick guide on what to look for when replacing fluorescent lightbulbs. The first step is to jot down information from the stamped coding on the lamp itself. On most lamps, you’ll find an F which is for fluorescent followed by a number which represents the rating in watts, or the length in inches. The letter which follows is the shape of the lamp (example: T for tubular). The final number is the diameter in eighths of an inch, or sometimes millimeters. Additionally you might find HO for high output, and VHO for very high output included on the coding. Once you find this encoding you can begin shopping for your florescent bulb replacements.

Ebay.com generally has a limited number of fluorescent lightbulbs listed for auction, most with buy-it-now available. However, unlike other light bulbs, this might not be the best place to purchase. Generally, you can find better discounts shopping large stores such as Home Depot, as you’ll be able to pick the bulb up yourself and not have to pay shipping costs. If you’re looking for the best discount on fluorescent lights, it will often pay to spend a little time shopping. Our advice is to start with Ebay and Home Depot to get an idea of pricing, and then do a few Google searches and make a few phone calls, and then go with the best price.

Now that we’ve covered purchasing discount fluorescent light bulbs, we’ll cover a brief history of these lightbulbs cover as well some of the latest fluorescent lightbulb technology enhancements.

Fluorescent Lighting – How it Began

The term “fluorescence” was coined by George Gabriel Stokes, an Irish physicist of Cambridge University when he described how the elements of the mineral fluorite were experimentally induced to produce visible light when they relaxed from a previously excited state. From that point, some years later in 1856, a German glassblower, Heirich Geissler created a mercury vacuum tube and named it the Geissler tube. Its first use was as an object of fascination and grew in popularity through such use. It remained also as a source of experiments and eventually became a fluorescent lamp and was installed in stores and offices in the very early 1900s. These first fluorescents were expensive and required high voltages. Next came mercury vapor lamps, followed by neon lighting. Finally in 1938, sales of fluorescent lamps began with four different size lamps on the market. By 1951, more light was produced in the United States by fluorescent lamps than by any other type.

The Fluorescent Light and Ballast

A fluorescent lamp, often called a fluorescent tube because of its structure, is a gas discharge lamp in which a current of electricity is ignited between two electrodes and causes the excitement of mercury vapor which then causes a phosphor to “fluoresce”, and give off visible light. Other gases involved are argon, xenon, neon and krypton. The inner surface of the lamp is coated with a fluorescent coating of metallic and rare-earth salt blends to cause further chemical reactions and better lighting. These lamps require a ballast which is an electrical component that provides the necessary voltage and regulates the power through the lamp. Without the ballast, if the fluorescent lamp were to be connected directly to a current flow of sufficient capacity to cause it to light, it would also draw too much current and immediately burn out. The ballast employs circuitry such as a coil choke to achieve an inductive value, similar to resistance, which regulates this current to a safe operating level for the tube. Ballasts of today also provide a starting method to heat the gas initially, known as rapid start and instant start. Electronic ballasts are the ballasts of choice for best control and greater efficiency.

Fluorescent Lights Today

The problems of the older fluorescent lights have been overcome and new terms demonstrate changes with the newer technology:

CRI – Color Rendering Index: This is a measure of white balance, and as all colors are contained in white light, this index as it approaches 100% gives the truest color with regard to all colors. By definition, an incandescent light has an CRI of 100%. Bright daylight would also achieve this index. Fluorescent tubes come in a variety of CRI values to provide an assortment of tints of white for effect or correction of environmental conditions.

CCT – Correlated Color Temperature: This is a measure of the shade of whiteness and is measured in degrees K. Incandescent lighting is 2700 degrees and is seen as yellowish white. Fluorescent lamps are manufactured to various levels of K. Warm white fluorescents are set to 2700K, Neutral white is between 3000K and 3500K, cool-white is 4100K, and daylight fluorescents are between 5000K and 6500K, which gives a bluish-white light and a very natural appearance to colors.

Phosphor Composition: The newer phosphate coatings eliminate the unpleasant light of early fluorescent design, which gave an eerie yellow or dim blue light, due to an incomplete spectrum. Today’s higher CRI halophosphate and triphosphor coatings have improved this remarkably. The more natural, as in daylight, color reproduction of such lamps is typically 82-100 CRI.