When arranging the lighting for your home, you’ll discover that there are a few different types of light to choose from. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and some are better than others for saving power and lasting a long time. As a general guide, here are the most common types of lighting used to light people’s businesses and homes.


Incandescent lighting

Since the invention of the light bulb, incandescent bulbs have been the most common electric lights used in households around the world. The lights are still incredibly common, but they’re beginning to lose ground due to the fact that they’re relatively inefficient and have short lives. For the amount of light they produce, incandescent bulbs  use a lot of electricity (only about 15 percent of the electricity comes out as light), and they tend to burn out at random and unexpected times.

However, there are advantages to incandescent bulbs. For one thing, they produce a quality of light that many people consider to be more pleasant than the alternatives. They’re also more inexpensive that other types of light bulbs.

Halogen lighting

Halogen light bulbs are essentially an alternative form of incandescent light bulbs in that they use the same general mechanism but with different materials. The light they produce is more intense and whiter than that of incandescent bulbs, which makes them great for efficiently lighting larger spaces. They’re also more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs, using about half as much power. The main advantage is that they are more expensive. In the past, they’ve been known to create fire hazards, but these problems have mostly gone away with newer-generation halogen bulbs.

Tubular fluorescent lights

Tubular fluorescent lights are the most common sources of lighting in commercial buildings and places like schools and offices. Because of this, many people associate them with drab environments, and their dull, faintly greenish light is not as aesthetically pleasing as the light produced by incandescent bulbs. In homes, many people use this relatively cheap and efficient type of lighting to light finished basements.

Compact fluorescent lighting

Compact fluorescent light bulbs work in much the same way as tubular fluorescent bulbs, but they have been designed to emulate the light quality of incandescent bulbs. Now that many people are trying to save power and live greener lifestyles, compact fluorescent light bulbs are gaining ground due to their efficiency and long lives. There are compact fluorescent light bulbs available to fill all the roles that we usually reserve for incandescent bulbs.