Light Energy

You might not be aware of it, but the biggest culprits in your home in terms of energy wasting are light bulbs. Many bulbs do not use power to create light energy, instead most of the energy produced by these bulbs is in heat. The ratio of heat energy to light energy in incandescent light bulbs, for example, is pretty big.  For every 70 joules of light energy created by the light bulb, there are 30 joules of heat energy- 30%! This is a very high percentage, almost 1/3 of the total output. Cutting down on the unnecessary production of heat energy can serve two purposes: it is environmentally sound and will also help you with the bottom line.

The most common form of light bulbs found in homes are the incandescent variety. These lights produce illumination by heating a filament made of tungsten to a very high temperature, at which the radiation from the filament produces the light. The heat is another product of the burning filament, and as has been pointed out above, accounts for substantial loss of energy.

Halogen lights use a chemical process to prolong the life of their filaments and also to use less energy for heat. Halogen lights keep atoms that are released in the transition process within the bulb, and when the atoms make contact with the filament they can be broken down and the tungsten recycled. These lights will often feel hotter than incandescents, but this is largely due to the increased activity of the particles than it is to an increased output of heat energy. Halogens also are contained in glass which heats up faster and hotter than the casing of incandescents. The type of heat energy released by halogens is also different from that which is released by incandescent light bulbs, being more blue light energy and less of the infrared type that takes a lot in terms of energy to create. This also means that the energy used even to create the heat by halogens adds to the light effect- blue light appears whiter where as infrared is not visible to the human eye.

Fluorescent lights are anther alternative if you are looking to maximize the efficiency of light energy. Fluorescents use ultraviolet light and usually come in systems, such as tube lighting. The lights produce the light by colliding electrons with mercury atoms. The ultraviolet light is visible to the human eye because the tubes of the fluorescent light are layered with white phosphor powder, which convert the ultraviolet to visible light. Flourescents produce much les heat than either incandescents or halogens, and also last much longer.

The key to conserving energy is to make sure that you use bulbs that convert the most of their power into light energy rather than heat energy. New LED technology is the ultimate when it comes to the ability to turn power into light energy, with every other method, even fluorescents, coming in far behind.