Lamps for improving the energy efficiency of domestic lighting

Abstract

Change is coming to the domestic lighting market. The light source that has dominated domestic lighting since the birth of electric lighting is going to be squeezed out and others with different characteristics will replace it. Some of these are already on the market, some are entering the market now and some have yet to make an entrance. The householder is certainly going to have plenty of lamp types to choose from, all of them claiming to be ‘low energy’. Alternative domestic light sources include compact fluorescents which produce enormous energy savings over the incandescent lamp, but do not have its visual appearance, colour quality or instantaneous full light output. Tungsten halogen lamps do possess the light qualities of the incandescent lamp and are available in the traditional light bulb shape, but do not provide the same energy savings as compact fluorescents. LED’s are potentially the ideal replacement for incandescent lamps having a long life with a discrete appearance, but improvements to efficacy for the warm white version are required to meet Building Regulations. Research on OLEDs continues, but current usage is limited to display applications, a situation which may not change for some years.