Question

iformation about various types of bulbs

Answer 1

Types of Light Bulbs
Traditional Incandescent Bulbs
Incandescent bulbs produce a steady warm, light that is good for most household applications. A standard incandescent bulb can last for 700-1000 hours, and can be used with a dimmer. Soft white bulbs use a special coating inside the glass bulb to better diffuse the light; but the light color is not changed.

Halogen
Halogen bulbs are a variation of incandescent bulb technology. These bulbs work by passing electricity through a tungsten filament, which is enclosed in a tube containing halogen gas. This halogen gas causes a chemical reaction to take place which removes the tungsten from the wall of the glass and deposits it back onto the filament. This extends the life of the bulb. In order for the chemical reaction to take place, the filament needs to be hotter than what is needed for incandescent bulbs. The good news is that a hotter filament produces a brilliant white light and is more efficient (more lumens per watt).

Various types of halogen bulbs
The bad news is that a hotter filament means that the tungsten is evaporating that much faster. Therefore a denser, more expensive fill gas (krypton), and a higher pressure, are used to slow down the evaporation. This means that a thicker, but smaller glass bulb (envelope) is needed, which translates to a higher cost. Due to the smaller glass envelope (bulb), the halogen bulb gets much hotter than other bulbs. A 300 watt bulb can reach over 300 degrees C. Therefore attention must be paid to where halogen bulbs are used, so that they don't accidentally come in contact with flammable materials, or burn those passing by.
Care must be taken not to touch the glass part of the bulb with our fingers. The oils from our fingers will weaken the glass and shorten the bulb’s life. Many times this causes the bulb to burst when the filament finally burns out.

To summarize, the halogen has the advantage of being more efficient (although not by much) and having longer life than the incandescent bulb. They are relatively small in size and are dimmable. The disadvantages are that they are more expensive, and burn at a much higher temperature, which could possibly be a fire hazard in certain areas.

Fluorescent
These bulbs work by passing a current through a tube filled with argon gas and mercury. This produces ultraviolet radiation that bombards the phosphorous coating causing it to emit light (see: “How Fluorescents Work”). Bulb life is very long - 10,000 to 20,000 hours. Fluorescent bulbs are also very efficient, producing very little heat. A common misconception is that all fluorescent lamps are neutral or cool in color appearance and do not have very good color-rendering ability. This is largely due to the fact that historically the "cool white" fluorescent lamp was the industry standard. It had a very cool color appearance (4200K) and poor CRI rating (62). This is simply no longer the case. Regarding color, a wide variety of fluorescent lamps (T12, T8, T5, etc.), using rare-earth tri-phosphor technology, offer superior color rendition (as high as 95) and a wide range of color temperature choices (from 2700K to 5000K and higher). Fluorescent bulbs are ideal for lighting large areas where little detail work will be done (e.g. basements, storage lockers, etc.). With the new type bulbs, and style of fixtures coming out, fluorescents can be used in most places around the home. Most fluorescent bulb cannot be used with dimmers.
Fluorescent tube bulbs

Compact Fluorescent (CFL)

CFL

High-Intensity Discharge Lamps
High Pressure Sodium (HPS), Metal Halide, Mercury Vapor and Self-Ballasted Mercury Lamps are all high intensity discharge lamps (HID). With the exception of self-ballasted lamps, auxiliary equipment such as ballasts and starters must be provided for proper starting and operation of each type bulb. Compared to fluorescent and incandescent lamps, HID lamps produce a large quantity of light from a relatively small bulb.


Mercury Bulb


Metal Halide Bulb
Standard high-pressure sodium lamps have the highest efficacy of all HID lamps, but they produce a yellowish light. High-pressure sodium lamps that produce a whiter light are now available, but efficiency is somewhat sacrificed. Metal halide lamps are less efficient but produce a whiter, more natural light. Colored metal halide lamps are also available. HID lamps are typically used not only when energy efficiency and/or long life are desired, but also when high levels of light are required over large areas.

LED (Light Emitting Diodes)

Light Emitting Diodes
Light Emitting Diodes (LED) are bulbs without a filament, that are low in power consumption and have a long life span. LEDs are just starting to rival conventional lighting, but unfortunately they just don't have the output (lumen) needed to completely replace incandescent, and other type, bulbs just yet.