How an Incandescent Light Bulb Works

The light bulb is one of the wonders of the modern world. Found

nearly everywhere on the planet, light bulbs are so common and

widespread that it’s easy to forget how dependent we are on

them. The light bulb is an electric light source that’s technically called

a lamp. This term is, of course, also more commonly used by

consumers to mean a portable type of lighting such as a table lamp or a desk lamp.

The most common type of “lamp” or bulb is the incandescent light bulb. These types of light
bulbs are the oldest and simplest form of bulb technology, dating back to Thomas Edison’s
experiments with filament types back in 1879.

How Incandescent Bulbs Work

An incandescent bulb works on the principle of incandescence, a general term meaning light
produced by heat. In an incandescent type of bulb, an electric current is passed through a thin
metal filament, heating the filament until it glows and produces light.

Incandescent bulbs typically use a tungsten filament because of tungsten’s high melting point.
A tungsten filament inside a light bulb can reach temperatures as high as 4,500 degrees
Fahrenheit. A glass enclosure, the glass “bulb”, prevents oxygen in the air from reaching the hot
filament. Without this glass covering and the vacuum it helps create, the filament would
overheat and oxidize in a matter or moments.

After the electricity has made its way through the tungsten filament, it goes down another wire
and out of the bulb via the metal portion at the side of the socket. It goes into the lamp or
fixture and out a neutral wire.

This is an elegantly simple system and it works quite well at producing light. It’s perfect for a
wide range of applications, cheap and easy to manufacture, and is compatible with either AC or
DC current.
Are Incandescent Bulbs Dimmable?
Yes – by default, all incandescent light bulbs are dimmable.

There are exceptions to this rule. For example, certain specialized designs – such as particular
types of colored light bulbs – are non-dimmable due to the manufacturing process. However,
these will always be noted as “non-dimmable.” In general, you can trust incandescent light
bulbs to be dimmable.

What is the Average Incandescent Bulb Life?

Each bulb is different, but the average incandescent bulb will have a lifespan of at least 1000 hours.
There are many bulb designs that last longer than this. Before buying a bulb, be sure to check out
the product details for the listed lifespan.

CFL bulbs, which are technically a type of incandescent light bulb, tend to have a longer lifespan,
lasting as much as ten times longer than standard incandescent lights.

What Color is an Incandescent Bulb?

Incandescent color temperature usually ranges from white
to yellow. However, each bulb is different.

If it’s important to you, check out the listed color

temperature of a bulb before purchase. The higher the
color temperature, the “cooler” the bulb is, which means it
produces a whiter light. When the color temperature is
lower, the bulb gives off a “warm” or yellow light output.

If you’re looking for light bulbs in a more unusual color,

such as red or blue, check out colored light bulbs instead.

Are Incandescent Bulbs Energy Efficient?

No, incandescent bulbs are not energy efficient.

Only around 10% of the electric power used by an incandescent light bulb produces light. The
other 90% is emitted as heat. Because of this high heat output you’ll see incandescent bulbs
used as heating lamps, grow bulbs and incubator lights where heat output is actually an asset.
 Finding Energy Saving Alternatives for
the Incandescent Bulb

With incandescent bulbs being as energy

inefficient as they are, several newer
technologies are now vying to replace them,
including CFL bulbs (compact fluorescent
light bulbs) and LEDs (light-emitting diodes).
Some legislation is even in place to phase
out incandescent light bulbs in favor of more
energy efficient forms of lighting.

If you want the the most energy efficient

light bulb type, go with LED light bulbs. You
can easily replace an incandescent bulb with
an LED bulb instead. Just swap out an old
light bulb in a lamp or chandelier for its modern LED counterpart. Yes, you can put LED bulbs in
regular fixtures, just as long as the bulb base and wattage is compatible with the fixture.

Construction of Incandescent Lamp

The filament is attached across two lead wires.

One lead wire is connected to the foot contact and
other is terminated on the metallic base of the
bulb. Both of the lead wires pass through glass
support mounted at the lower middle of the bulb.
Two support wires also attached to glass support,
are used to support filament at its middle portion.
The foot contact is isolated from metallic base by
insulating materials. The entire system is
encapsulated by a colored or phasphare coated or transparent glass bulb. The glass bulb may
be filled with inert gases or it is kept vacuum depending upon rating of the incandescent lamp.

The filament of incandescent lamps is air-tightly evacuated with a glass bulb of suitable shape
and size. This glass bulb is used to isolate the filament from surrounding air to prevent
oxidation of filament and to minimize convention current surrounding the filament hence to
keep the temperature of the filament high. The glass bulb is either kept vacuum or filled with
inert gases like argon with a small percentage of nitrogen at low pressure. Inert gases are used
to minimize the evaporation of filament during service of the lamps. But due to convection flow
of inert gas inside the bulb, there will be greater chances of losing the heat of filament during
operation. Again vacuum is a great insulation of heat, but it accelerates the evaporation of
filament during operation. In the case of gas-filled incandescent lamps, 85% of argon mixed
with 15% of nitrogen is used. Occasionally krypton can be used to reduce filament evaporation
because the molecular weight of krypton gas is quite higher. But it costs greater. At about 80%
of atmospheric pressure, the gasses are filled into the bulb. Gas is filled in the bulb with the
rating more than 40 W. But for less than 40 W bulb; there is no gas used.

Application

The application in which lamps actually operate is usually different than conditions under which
they are typically tested. Lab life testing is done at rated voltages with lamps operating in
parallel on 60 cycle alternating current from a constant voltage source. Shortened life can be
expected if lamps operate either on direct current, in series, or from a constant current source,
some increase in life performance can be expected if the voltage across the lamp is below rated
voltage. The environment can also have an effect on lamp characteristics. Shock and vibration,
high ambient temperature and helium atmospheres can all reduce the operating life.

Tungsten Halogen Lamps

In 1958, E.G. Fridrich and E.H. Wiley had has developed Tungsten Halogen Lamp by introducing
a halogen gas (basically Iodine) inside the incandescent lamp. Basically, without halogen gas,
incandescent lamp filament gradually losses its performance because of its filament
evaporation at higher temperature of operation. The evaporated tungsten from the filament of
normal incandescent lamp gets deposited inside the bulb surface gradually. Thus lumens get
obstructed from its way to come out from the bulb. So the efficacy i.e. lumen/watt of the
incandescent lamp goes down gradually. But the insertion of halogen gas into the incandescent
lamp overcomes this difficulty in addition to different advantages. Because this inserted
halogen gas helps the evaporated tungsten to form tungsten halide which never gets deposited
on the inner bulb surface at bulb surface temperature between 500K and 1500K. So the lumens
never face obstruction. So Lumen per watt of the lamp does not deteriorate. Again due to
insertion of pressurized halogen gas, the rate of evaporation of the filament goes down.

Working Principle of Halogen

Lamp
The working principle of halogen
lamp is based on regenerative
cycle of halogen.In incandescent
lamp due to high temperature
tungsten filament gets
evaporated during its operation.
Due to convectional flow of gas
inside the bulb, the evaporated
tungsten is transported away from the filament. The wall of the bulb is relatively
cool. Hence the evaporated tungsten then is adhered to the inner bulb wall. This is
not the case when halogen like iodine is used in the bulb container. The temperature
of the filament of the halogen lamp is maintained at about 3300K. Hence here also
tungsten will be evaporated from lamp filament. Due to convectional flow of gas
inside the bulb, the evaporated tungsten atoms are transported away from the
filament to relatively lower temperature zone where they combine with the iodine
vapor and form the tungsten iodide. The temperature required for combination of tungsten
and iodine is 2000K.
Then the same convectional flow of gas inside the bulb carries the tungsten iodide to the wall
of relatively lower temperature. But the bulb is so designed that the temperature of the glass
wall remains between 500K and 1500K and at that temperature tungsten iodide does not
adhere to the bulb wall. It goes back to towards the filament due to same convectional flow of
gas inside the bulb. Again, at the close vicinity of the filament where temperature is more than
2800K, the tungsten iodide gets broken into the tungsten and iodine vapor. Because this is the
required temperature for breaking tungsten iodide into tungsten and iodine atoms is >2800K.
Then these tungsten atoms further proceed and get re-deposited on the filament to
compensate previously vaporized tungsten. After that they again get evaporated due to high
filament temperature and become free to acquire iodine to form iodide. This cycle repeats
again and again. Hence the filament does not get evaporated
permanently so temperature of the filament can be maintain at
very high level compared to normal incandescent lamp which
makes it more efficient i.e. more lumen/watt rating. As there is no
permanent evaporation of filament, the lifespan of the Tungsten
Halogen Lamps gets much longer with clarity of illumination. The
chemical equation is

Construction of Halogen Lamp

Comparing to the halogen lamp, the incandescent lamp is able to provide only 80% of its
lumens at the end of the life as the clarity of glass wall becomes fade due to tungsten
deposition on it whereas the tungsten halogen lamp is able to provide above 95% of its lumens
at the end of life. Previously borosilicate or aluminosilicate glass was used to make bulb of the
halogen lamp. Because they have higher temperature withstanding capability and their thermal
expansion co-efficient is very low. But now a day’s Quartz is widely used to make halogen bulb
glass. Quartz is transparent silica and pure silicon dioxide. It is very stronger and it withstands
higher temperature as compared to the borosilicate or alumina silicate glass. Quartz bulb can
be soft material above 1900K. Again around the filament 2800K must be maintained to get
continuous halogen cycle. So the distance between the filament and quartz bulb wall must be
maintained in such a way that the quartz bulb wall gets temperature below 1900K. The bulb
wall should be stronger and smaller in volume such that the lamp can be operated at the inner
pressure of several atmospheres. Again higher pressure inside the bulb reduces the rate of
evaporation of the tungsten filament. A certain amount of nitrogen and argon are mixed in
addition to the halogen gas inside the bulb to maintain this higher gas pressure inside. Thus the
lamp can be operated at the higher temperature and with higher luminous efficacy for long
time. Most of the lamps in present days are with bromine instead of iodine. Bromine is
colorless whereas the iodine is purplish tint.

Application of Tungsten halogen lamps

Tungsten halogen lamps can have a number of shapes but they are most often tubular with the
filament oriented axially. Again they are available in both double ended and single ended types.
Two types are shown below.

Tungsten halogen lamps give correlated color temperature, excellent lumen maintenance and
reasonable life. Tungsten halogen lamps are appropriate to be used in outdoor lighting
application. Particularly they can be used in the sports lighting, theater, studios and television
lighting etc. Their filaments are generally mechanically stable and positioned with higher
precision. Tungsten halogen lamps are being used widely as spotlight, film projectors and
scientific instruments. Types of Tungsten halogen lamps in the market of low voltage tungsten
filament lamps are also available. They are available at 12, 20, 42, 50 and 75 Watts operated
between 3000K and 3300K. Their life ranges from 2000 hours to 3500 hours.As the optical
projection equipments the halogen lamps are generally used, in present days, they are being
used widely in the display lighting also.The main part of the tungsten halogen lamp is small
tungsten halogen capsule. It is cemented into one piece, all glass reflectors are as the facets for
controlling the beam optically. MR-16 lamp has multifaceted reflector with 2 inch diameter. It
has slightly higher luminous efficacy than standard voltage incandescent lamps. Their size is
smaller also and permit compact fixture.

How do High Intensity Discharge (HID) grow lights work?

High-intensity discharge lamps (HID lamps) produce light by passing an
electric current between two tungsten electrodes inside a glass tube
containing gases and metal salts. When the electric current is sufficient, the
gas acts as a conductor, creating an arc between the two electrodes while
the metal salts vaporize due to the intense heat generated by the arc. The
electricity ionizes the gaseous metal salts (adds electrons) and, as a result,
they intensify the light generated by the initial arc stream. Different
mixtures of metal salts will produce different qualities of light.
Construction
Various types of chemistry are used in the arc tubes of HID lamps, depending on the desired
characteristics of light intensity, correlated color temperature, color rendering index (CRI),
energy efficiency, and lifespan. Varieties of HID lamp include:

 Mercury-vapor lamps
 Metal-halide (MH) lamps
 Ceramic MH lamps
 Sodium-vapor lamps
 Xenon short-arc lamps
The light-producing element of these lamp types is a well-stabilized arc discharge contained
within a refractory envelope arc tube with wall loading in excess of 3 W/cm² (19.4 W/in²).
Mercury-vapor lamps were the first commercially available HID lamps. Originally they produced
a bluish-green light, but more recent versions can produce light with a less pronounced color
tint. However, mercury-vapor lamps are falling out of favor and being replaced by sodium-
vapor and metal-halide lamps.
Metal-halide and ceramic metal-halide lamps can be made to give off neutral white light useful
for applications where normal color appearance is critical, such as TV and movie production,
indoor or nighttime sports games, automotive headlamps, and aquarium lighting.
Low-pressure sodium-vapor lamps are extremely efficient. They produce a deep yellow-orange
light and have an effective CRI of nearly zero; items viewed under their light
appear monochromatic. This makes them particularly effective as photographic safelights. High-
pressure sodium lamps tend to produce a much whiter light, but still with a characteristic
orange-pink cast. New color-corrected versions producing a whiter light are now available, but
some efficiency is sacrificed for the improved color.
Ballasts for discharge lamps
Like fluorescent lamps, HID lamps require a ballast to start and maintain their arcs. The method
used to initially strike the arc varies: mercury-vapor lamps and some metal-halide lamps are
usually started using a third electrode near one of the main electrodes, while other lamp styles
are usually started using pulses of high voltage.
Replacements for the toxic mercury in the HID lamps have been investigated and are a matter
of ongoing research. Experiments show promising results and widespread future applications
are expected.
Application
HID lamps are typically used when high levels of light over large areas are required, and when
energy efficiency and/or light intensity are desired. These areas include gymnasiums, large
public areas, warehouses, movie theaters, football stadiums, outdoor activity areas, roadways,
parking lots, and pathways. More recently, HID lamps have been used in small retail and even
residential environments because of advances in reduced lumen bulbs. Ultra-high performance
(UHP) HID lamps are used in LCD or DLP projection TV sets or projection displays as well.
HID lamps have made indoor gardening practical, particularly for plants that require high levels
of direct sunlight in their natural habitat; HID lamps, specifically metal-halide and high-pressure
sodium, are a common light source for indoor gardens. They are also used to reproduce tropical
intensity sunlight for indoor aquaria.
Most HID lamps produce significant UV radiation and require UV-blocking filters to prevent UV-
induced degradation of lamp fixture components and fading of dyed items illuminated by the
lamp. Exposure to HID lamps operating with faulty or absent UV-blocking filters causes injury to
humans and animals, such as sunburn and arc eye. Many HID lamps are designed to quickly
extinguish if their outer UV-shielding glass envelope is broken.
Beginning in the early 1990s, HID lamps have seen applications in automotive headlamps.
Xenon, or high-intensity discharge (HID), lighting provides brighter headlights and increases
visibility of many peripheral objects (e.g. street signs and pedestrians) left in the shadows by
standard halogen lighting.
HID lamps are used in high-performance bicycle headlamps, as well as flashlights and other
portable lights, because they produce a great amount of light per unit of power. As the HID
lights use less than half the power of an equivalent tungsten-halogen light, a significantly
smaller and lighter-weight power supply can be used.
HID lamps have also become common on many aircraft as replacements for traditional landing
and taxi lights.
HID lamps are also used in lamps for underwater diving. The higher efficacy of HID lamps
compared to halogen units means longer burn times for a given battery size and light output.

What is Fluorescent Lamp?

A fluorescent lamp is a low weight mercury vapour lamp that uses fluorescence to deliver visible light.
An electric current in the gas energizes mercury vapor which delivers ultraviolet radiation through
discharge process and the ultraviolet radiation causes the phosphor coating of the lamp inner wall to

radiate visible light. A fluorescent lamp has changed over electrical energy into useful light energy
to a great deal more proficiently than incandescent lamps. The normal luminous viability of fluorescent
lighting frameworks is 50 to100 lumens per watt, which is a few times the adequacy of
incandescent lamps with equivalent light yield.
 How does a Fluorescent Lamp work?
Before going through the working principle of a
fluorescent lamp, we will first show the circuit of a
fluorescent lamp in other words circuit of tube

light.
Here we connect one ballast, and one switch and
the supply is series as shown. Then we connect
the fluorescent tube and a starter across it.

 When we switch ON the supply, full voltage comes across the lamp and as well as across
the starter through the ballast. But at that instant, no discharge happens, i.e., no lumen
output from the lamp.
 At that full voltage first the glow discharge is established in the starter. This is because
the electrodes gap in the neon bulb of starter is much lesser than that of the fluorescent
lamp.
 Then gas inside the starter gets ionized due to this full voltage and heats the bimetallic
strip. That causes to bend the bimetallic strip to connect to the fixed contact. Now,
current starts flowing through the starter. Although the ionization potential of the neon
is more than that of the argon but still due to small electrode gap, a high voltage
gradient appears in the neon bulb and hence glow discharge gets started first in the
starter.
 As soon as the current starts flowing through the touched contacts of the neon bulb of
the starter, the voltage across the neon bulb gets reduced since the current, causes
a voltage drop across the inductor(ballast). At reduced or no voltage across the neon
bulb of the starter, there will be no more gas discharge taking place and hence the
bimetallic strip gets cool and breaks away from the fixed contact. At the time of
breaking of the contacts in the neon bulb of the starter, the current gets interrupted,
and hence at that moment, a large voltage surge comes across the inductor(ballast).

 This high valued surge voltage comes across the fluorescent lamp (tube light) electrodes
and strikes penning mixture (mixture argon gas and mercury vapor).
 Gas discharge process gets started and continues and hence current again gets a path to
flow through the fluorescent lamp tube (tube light) itself. During discharging of penning
gas mixture the resistance offered by the gas is lower than the resistance of starter.
 The discharge of mercury atoms produces ultraviolet radiation which in turn excites the
phosphor powder coating to radiate visible light.
 Starter gets inactive during glowing of fluorescent lamp (tube light) because no current
passes through the starter in that condition.
Construction of Fluorescent Lamp

A fluorescent tube light consists of

1. a lime glass tube
2. drop of mercury
3. argon gas
4. phosphor coating
5. electrode coils
6. mounting assemblies
7. aluminum cap
Total set up of a lamp requires two bases and electromagnetic ballast or choke coil with a
starter.

 The electrode mount assemblies are at both the ends of lamp tube.
 This electrode mounting assembly is almost similar to the stem press unit in the
incandescent lamps.
 The electrode is similar to the incandescent lamp filament.
 The filaments of electrodes play both roles as anode and cathode.
 Small plates are attached to the filament to protect the electron bombardment and
reduce the wattage loss at both ends.
 The filament is dipped in a mixture of barium, strontium and calcium carbonate. It is
baked during manufacturing to become oxides and thus it becomes capable of providing
abundance of free electrons easily.
 Liquid mercury is provided inside the lamp bulb.
 Phosphor coating is used on inner wall of the bulb tube.
 At a certain pressure argon gas is filled up inside the tube.
 Two pins at each end are taken out of the lamp body through the cap.
The figure of an electrode is shown below.

A fluorescent lamp tube is loaded with a gas containing low-pressure mercury vapor and
argon. The pressure inside the lamp is around
0.3% of environmental pressure. The inward
surface of the lamp is coated with a fluorescent
(and frequently marginally luminous). This
coating is made of shifting mixes of metallic and
uncommon earth phosphor salts. The lamp’s
anodes are normally made of snaked tungsten
and typically alluded to as cathodes due to their
prime capacity of discharging electrons. For this,
they are coated with a blend of barium,
strontium, and calcium oxides to have a low thermionic emission temperature. Fluorescent
lamp tubes are normally straight and long. The length of the commonly used lamp is around
100 millimeters (3.9 in). A few lamps have the tube twisted into a circle, utilized for table lamps
or different spots where a more conservative light source is required. Bigger U-shaped lamps
are utilized to give the same measure of light in a smaller region. Minimal fluorescent lamps
have a few little width tubes joined in a heap of two, four, or six or a little breadth tube curled
into a helix, to give a high measure of light yield in little volume.

To construct a fluorescent tube light a lime glass tube, drop of mercury, argon gas, phosphor
coating and the electrodes with their mount assemblies are required. Total set up of a lamp
requires two bases and choke coil with a starter. The electrode mount assembly is almost
similar to the stem press unit in the incandescent lamps. The filaments play both roles as anode
and cathode. Generally, small plates are attached to the filament to protect it from electron
bombardment and to reduce the wattage loss at both ends.
The electrode is similar to the incandescent lamp filament. But an exception is that this filament
is dipped in a mixture of barium, strontium, and calcium carbonate. It is baked during
manufacturing to become oxides and thus it becomes capable of providing the abundance of
free electrons easily.

APPLICATIONS
Fluorescents lights can be used in many applications Industrial, commercial, and residential.
Fluorescents provide a shadow free lighting in all applications.
 Fluorescent bulbs can provide high light output to light large areas and are well suited
for detailed task lighting in Industrial applications.
 Fluorescents provide a uniform light level for office space and are also well suited for
detailed task lighting in commercial applications.
 They can also be used in residential applications as up lighting from cabinets, beams or
coves and under cabinet lighting. Fluorescents are effective lighting for kitchens,
valences, comices, and fascias.
 T8 fluorescents are the most common for commercial and industrial use.
 Smaller fluorescent lamps such as T5’s are used in sign and display applications such as
jewelry stores.
 Ceiling fixtures tend use a circline fluorescent light which can be found in
residential applications.
 Bicol Merchant Marine College Inc.
Pangpang, Sorsogon City

Research in Electro 1

Submitted by:
Romart C. Tan
BSMarE-1A

Submitted to:
Engr. Vincent Diaz
Instructor