Incandescent vs. LED vs. CFL Bulb. Which one to choose?

A few years back there was only one choice for light in the market that was incandescent bulb. We used to choose the bulb as per watt depending on how much brightness we want. But that is not the case now. We use lumen to measure the brightness of light. More the lumen more will be the brightness of the light and vice versa. Wattage only depends on power consumption and is responsible for our electricity bill. That means light with more lumen and less wattage is better. In recent years with the availability of CFL and LED bulbs in the market, we can choose bulbs according to our need.

Incandescent Bulb:

The incandescent light bulb or lamp works by incandescence, which is the emission of light caused by heating the filament by passing an electric current through it. It takes a few moments to warm up and reach full brightness.

CFL Bulb:

CFLs produce light differently than incandescent bulbs. In a CFL, an electric current is driven through a tube containing argon and a small amount of mercury vapour. This generates invisible ultraviolet light that excites a fluorescent coating (called phosphor) on the inside of the tube, which then emits visible light. It takes a few moments to warm up and reach full brightness.

LED bulb:

LED bulbs use a semiconductor device that emits visible light when an electric current passes through it. It is fast, reliable source of light Here are the major differences between these three bulbs on the basis of the following:

1. Losses:

Incandescent bulbs have about 95% heat and other losses. CFL bulbs have 85% heat and other losses. LED bulbs have 70% heat and other losses. In comparison to other bulbs LED bulbs produce lesser losses as compared to the other two.

2. Life Time:

LED bulbs have 25 times more life than an incandescent bulb and 4 times than a CFL bulb of the same wattage. In comparison between three, the lifetime of an LED bulb has higher life.

3.  Brightness to Wattage ratio (Efficacy):

For e.g. If we want a bulb of 800 lumens, we need 55W incandescent bulb, 16W CFL bulb, and 9W LED bulb. This means higher lumen and low watt can be obtained from LED bulb i.e. more brightness and lesser electricity consumption.

4. ROHS:

Incandescent and LED bulb meets ROHS (Restrict of Hazardous Substance) standard whereas CFL bulb does not meet this standard.

5. Health and Environment:

CFL releases mercury which is toxic to health and the environment. Whereas LED and Incandescent bulb are eco-friendly.

6. Control of Intensity:

Incandescent and CFL bulbs cannot be used with a dimmer switch but LED can. That is we can set the intensity of brightness as much as we need. With reference to the above, we can conclude that the LED bulb is far better than CFL and Incandescent. The value presented above may vary slightly as per manufacturer.