Types of Light
Accent lighting is a form of lighting used most commonly for illuminating walks with subtle light. However, this form of lighting can also be used to highlight key objects and focal points in the home or surrounding landscape.
Ambient lighting, sometimes also known as general lighting, is the main source of lighting in a room and is extremely important in indoor lighting design. It should not be the only source of illumination in a space, but people sometimes stop and declare the job done after putting in an ambient light source.
A compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) is a fluorescent light bulb that has been compressed into the size of a standard-issue incandescent light bulb. Modern CFLs typically last at least six times as long and use at most a quarter of the power of an equivalent incandescent bulb.
A fluorescent lamp or a fluorescent tube is a low pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor which produces short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor coating on the inside of the lamp to glow.
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Basically, an incandescent light bulb is a controlled fire on display. When electrical current makes contact with the base of the bulb, electricity enters and heats the tungsten filament housed inside. And when the filament heats up, “incandescence” is created, which is light produced by heat.
An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated to such a high temperature that it glows with visible light (incandescence).
Fluorescent lights are ideal for plants with low to medium light requirements, like African violets. They are also good for starting vegetables indoors. These lights typically come in long, tubelike bulbs in a range of sizes including T5, T8 and T12. The narrower the bulb, the more efficient and brighter it is, due to the smaller surface area.
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a two-lead semiconductor light source. It is a p–n junction diode that emits light when activated. When a suitable voltage is applied to the leads, electrons are able to recombine with electron holes within the device, releasing energy in the form of photons.
A metal-halide lamp is an electrical lamp that produces light by an electric arc through a gaseous mixture of vaporized mercury and metal halides (compounds of metals with bromine or iodine). It is a type of high-intensity discharge (HID) gas discharge lamp.
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The three main approaches are: Localized average lighting, where a lamp supplies both ambient light and task light. Freely adjustable task light such as a gooseneck, balanced-arm lamp, or swing-arm light. Asymmetric task light, where the lamp is placed at the side of the work area.