Compact fluorescent light bulb

A compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL bulb) is a type of fluorescent lamp which screws into a regular light bulb socket, or plugs into a small lighting fixture.

Their advantages over regular incandescent light bulbs are their long life (6,000 to 10,000 hours instead of 750 to 1,000 hours) and energy savings due to their lower power; a 17-watt CFL bulb gives the same amount of light as a 75-watt incandescent bulb, i.e. 1100 lumens. However, a large amount of the electrical energy is still converted into heat; the emitted visible light in this example is about 7 watts.

In the U.S. and Canada, compact fluorescent lights have been steadily increasing in sales for several years, as their quality increases, size and price decreases, color rendition improves, and more people find that the savings in energy costs (even indirectly, by saving on cooling) outweighs the initial cost.

CFL bulbs also provide a benefit to the environment based on their energy savings over a regular incandescent light bulb. According to the U.S. government's Energy Star website, if every household in the United States replaced just one incandescent bulb with a CFL bulb, it would have the equivalent environmental impact to removing one million cars from the American roads. [1] (http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls)

The newest version of the CFL bulb is the RFL, or radiofluorescent type, which uses radio waves instead of ultraviolet light to excite the phosphors. Another traditional CFL bulb is coated with titanium dioxide, which the company claims reduces odors by ionization and oxidation.

In 2003 the Canadian electrical company BC Hydro distributed thousands of compact flourescent lightbulbs for free, and currently offers a rebate program for their purchase: http://www.bchydro.com/powersmart/ . Numerous utilities operate similar reduction-of-usage education/advertising programs.

External links

• Energy Star homepage (http://www.energystar.gov)
• Energy saving calculator (http://www.sustainable.energy.sa.gov.au/pages/fluro_calc.htm)