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Basic Types of Lighting

There are three basic types of lighting for homes: ambient, task, and accent lighting. Ambient lighting provides overall illumination for an area. Task lighting helps with specific tasks like reading. Accent lighting adds visual interest by highlighting objects. Different types of lamps provide these lighting functions, including incandescent, fluorescent, halogen, LED, CFL, and gas discharge lamps like neon, mercury vapor, and sodium vapor lamps.

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Den Aloya
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93 views

Basic Types of Lighting

There are three basic types of lighting for homes: ambient, task, and accent lighting. Ambient lighting provides overall illumination for an area. Task lighting helps with specific tasks like reading. Accent lighting adds visual interest by highlighting objects. Different types of lamps provide these lighting functions, including incandescent, fluorescent, halogen, LED, CFL, and gas discharge lamps like neon, mercury vapor, and sodium vapor lamps.

Uploaded by

Den Aloya
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BASIC TYPES OF LIGHTING

Three are three basic types of lighting that work together in your home:

1. Ambient (general lighting)


2. Task
3. Accent

A good lighting plan combines all three types to light an area according to function and
style.

Ambient lighting provides an area with overall illumination.


Also known as general lighting, it radiates a comfortable level
of brightness without glare and allows you to see and walk
about safely. In some spaces such as laundry rooms, the
ambient lighting also serves as the primary source of task
lighting.

It can be accomplished with chandeliers, ceiling or wall-


mounted fixtures, recessed or track lights and with lanterns
mounted on the outside of the home. Having a central source
of ambient light in all rooms is fundamental to a good lighting
plan.

Task lighting helps you perform specific tasks, such as


reading, grooming, preparing and cooking food, doing
homework, working on hobbies, playing games and balancing
your checkbook. It can be provided by recessed and track
lighting, pendant lighting and under cabinet lighting, as well as
by portable floor and desk lamps.

Task lighting should be free of distracting glare and shadows


and should be bright enough to prevent eye strain.
Accent lighting adds drama to a room by creating visual
interest. As part of an interior design scheme, it is used to draw
the eye to houseplants, paintings, sculptures and other prized
possessions. It can also be used to highlight the texture of a
brick or stone wall, window treatments or outdoor landscaping.

To be effective, accent lighting requires as least three times as


much light on the focal point as the general lighting surrounding
it.

Accent lighting is usually provided by recessed and track


lighting or wall-mounted picture lights.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF LAMPS

NEON LAMP

A neon lamp ( also neon glow lamp ) is a miniature gas discharge lamp. The lamp
typically consists of a small glass capsule that contains a mixture of neon and other gases
at a low pressure and two electrodes (an anode and a cathode). When sufficient voltage
is applied and sufficient current is supplied between the electrodes, the lamp produces
an orange glow discharge. The glowing portion in the lamp is a thin region near the
cathode; the larger and much longer neon signs are also glow discharges, but they use
the positive column which is not present in the ordinary neon lamp. Neon glow lamps are
widely used as indicator lamps in the displays of electronic instruments and appliances.

MERCURY LAMPS

A mercury vapour lamp is a gas discharge lamp that uses an electric arc through
vaporized mercury to produce light. The arc discharge is generally confined to a small
fused quartz arc tube mounted within a larger borosilicate glass bulb. The outer bulb may
be clear or coated with a phosphor; in either case, the outer bulb provides thermal
insulation, protection from the ultraviolet radiation the light produces, and a convenient
mounting for the fused quartz arc tube.

SODIUM-VAPOR LAMP

A sodium-vapour lamp is a gas-discharge lamp that uses sodium in an excited state to


produce light. There are two varieties of such lamps: low pressure and high pressure.
Lowpressure sodium lamps are the most efficient electrical light sources, but their yellow
light restricts applications to outdoor lighting such as street lamps. High-pressure sodium
lamps have a broader spectrum of light than the low pressure, but still poorer colour
rendering than other types of lamps. Low pressure sodium lamps only give
monochromatic yellow light and so inhibit colour vision at night.

LED LAMP

It is a light-emitting diode (LED) product that is assembled into a lamp (or light bulb) for
use in lighting fixtures. LED lamps have a lifespan and electrical efficiency that is several
times better than incandescent lamps, and significantly better than most fluorescent
lamps, with some chips able to emit more than 100 lumens per watt. Like incandescent
lamps and unlike most fluorescent lamps (e.g. tubes and CFL), LED lights come to full
brightness without need for a warm-up time; the life of fluorescent lighting is also reduced
by frequent switching on and off. Initial cost of LED is usually higher.

COMPACT FLUORESCENT LAMP (CFL)

It is also called compact fluorescent light, energy-saving light, and compact fluorescent
tube, is a fluorescent lamp designed to replace an incandescent lamp; some types fit into
light fixtures formerly used for incandescent lamps. The lamps use a tube which is curved
or folded to fit into the space of an incandescent bulb, and a compact electronic ballast in
the base of the lamp. Compared to general-service incandescent lamps giving the same
amount of visible light, CFLs use one-fifth to one-third the electric power, and last eight
to fifteen times longer. A CFL has a higher purchase price than an incandescent lamp,
but can save over five times its purchase price in electricity costs over the lamp's lifetime.

INCANDESCENT LAMP OR INCANDESCENT LIGHT GLOBE

It is an electric light which produces light with a filament wire heated to a high temperature
by an electric current passing through it, until it glows (see Incandescence). The hot
filament is protected from oxidation with a glass or quartz bulb that is filled with inert gas
or evacuated. In a halogen lamp, filament evaporation is prevented by a chemical process
that redeposit metal vapour onto the filament, extending its life. The light bulb is supplied
with electrical current by feed-through terminals or wires embedded in the glass. Most
bulbs are used in a socket which provides mechanical support and electrical connections
.
HALOGEN LAMP

It is also known as a tungsten halogen, quartz-halogen or quartz iodine lamp, is an


incandescent lamp that has a small amount of a halogen such as iodine or bromine
added. The combination of the halogen gas and the tungsten filament produces a halogen
cycle chemical reaction which redeposit evaporated tungsten back onto the filament,
increasing its life and maintaining the clarity of the envelope. Because of this, a halogen
lamp can be operated at a higher temperature than a standard gas-filled lamp of similar
power and operating life, producing light of a higher luminous efficacy and colour
temperature .

FLUORESCENT LAMP OR FLUORESCENT TUBE

It is a low pressure mercury-vapour gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to


produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapour which produces
short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor coating on the inside of the bulb
to fluoresce, producing visible light. A fluorescent lamp converts electrical power into
useful light much more efficiently than incandescent lamps. The luminous efficacy of a
fluorescent light bulb can exceed 100 lumens per watt, several times the efficacy of an
incandescent bulb with comparable light output.

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