Today, you can choose energy-saving alternatives. However, most home lighting remains to be incandescent. Fluorescent and halogen lamps convert electricity into light more efficiently. Each type of lamp creates its own quality of light. Understanding the properties of each helps you see your home in an entirely different light.

Incandescent Lamps
Your basic light bulb is incandescent. Its popularity is mostly due to inexpensiveness, not efficiency.
An incandescent bulb wastes about 90 percent of its energy producing heat. Actually, the light it gives off is a byproduct of making heat. Resistance causes the tightly coiled tungsten filament inside an incandescent bulb to glow.
Incandescent bulbs have another drawback. As the tungsten filament reaches the end of its life span, it releases molecules that coat the inside surface of the bulb and slowly cause the bulb to darken. As it darkens, the bulb consumes almost the same amount of energy as when new, but emits 20 percent less light.
Nevertheless, most people prefer incandescent lighting in their homes, perhaps because it has a quality that comes close to the comforting warmth of candle and firelight.

Fluorescent Tubes
A fluorescent lamp excites vapor sealed in the tube. The electrified gas strikes a phosphorous coating on the tube’s inner surface, causing it to glow with evenly diffused light.
Fluorescent lighting is standard in commercial settings like offices and stores. These tubes use about 3/8 of the electricity per lumen that incandescent bulbs consume, and they last 10 to 20 times longer.
Many people dislike the cool, bluish quality of traditional fluorescent lighting. In response, manufacturers now make fluorescent lamps in warmer colors that come closer to the reddish yellow quality of incandescent lighting.

Halogen Lighting
The clean white light of a halogen lamp renders colors far better than incandescent or fluorescent lights. Many prefer it for reading and close work. Halogen bulbs combine elements of both incandescent and fluorescent lights. The screw-in types can replace standard light bulbs. Halogen bulbs last up to four times longer than incandescent bulbs and emit 25 percent more lumens per watt. A tungsten filament energizes gas sealed inside the bulb, producing hot, bright, focused light.
Low-voltage halogen lights, commonly used in desk and reading lamps, include a transformer that reduces household current to 12 volts. Line-voltage halogen bulbs screw into the same sockets as incandescent bulbs and contain their own compact transformer.