Energy-saving lamps - feasibility of purchase

The lighting industry is developing rapidly. It seems, most recently there were light bulbs energy-saving. At first, consumers were repelled by their high price, the presence of mercury, an unusual shade of light. Now they are used everywhere, and in Europe conventional incandescent lamps are already difficult to find at all. What are they good and how different from their predecessors?

First, the name "light bulbs energy-saving" - this is just an advertising trick. In fact, the "housekeeper" is a long-known fluorescent gas-discharge lamp. In total there are two types of such lamps: compact integrated and not integrated. They differ from each other only by the presence or absence of an electronic starter. The integrated ones have a built-in starter and they are usually supplied with a cap, allowing them to be used instead of incandescent lamps. Non-integrated electronic starter lamps do not have and can be installed only in the lighting fixtures in which it is embedded (table lamps, for example).

However, the history of the name and the technical details of the design are hardly of interest to the consumer. For him, the quality of light, reliability and economy of the goods are important. But it is here that there is most doubt and controversy. After all, energy saving bulbs are significantly more expensive than ordinary incandescent ones, and many are wondering: "Will such a purchase be justified?" Let's try to figure this out.

Light bulbs energy-saving being, as already said, gas-discharge, consume 3-5 times less electricity per unit of light than the usual incandescent lamps. Meanwhile, the built-in electronics (starter) makes them more sensitive to voltage drops and frequent on-offs. In most cases, the manufacturer, calculating the number of hours of energy-saving lamp, assumes that it will be turned on and off once a day. This explains why the life of such lamps in offices is two, three times more than at home. In addition, you should know that the energy-saving bulb has a so-called period of burning (reaching the brightest glow), which occurs only after 100-200 hours of burning. After that, the brightness is weakened and in a year it can decrease to 70% of the declared. And still, if an energy-saving lamp works for at least a year, it will fully pay for itself, both in terms of energy savings and in terms of the required number of incandescent lamps that will have to be bought in the same period. For comparison: the service life of 60 watts of the filament lamp, according to the manufacturers, is no more than 1000 hours. A lamp energy-saving 20 watt has a warranty of 4000 hours.

As for the quality of light, then according to the indicators of color rendition and color, modern energy-saving lamps far exceed their predecessors. In expensive fluorescent lamps , a five-band phosphor is used, which makes it possible to bring artificial light closer to the daylight sunlight.

In addition, thanks to modern technology, it became possible to make fluorescent lamps with any color, from yellow to ultraviolet. However, all this applies only to expensive (from $ 5) models. A cheaper energy-saving bulb does not justify the hopes, because it gives "bad light", and the low-quality components used in it rarely allow it to serve for more than a year.