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What’s the Difference?
A conventional bulb, known as an incandescent lamp, is basically a wire in a glass tube. When the light is switched on, an electrical current runs through this wire, making it hot enough to produce light. This process is called incandescence, and it was first discovered by Thomas Edison in 1879.
Unfortunately, incandescence is not very efficient — only about 10% of the energy used by the bulb creates light; the rest is given off as heat.
An ENERGY STAR bulb uses a different technology: compact fluorescence. In a compact fluorescent light (CFL), the glass tube contains an inert gas, liquid metal, and phosphorus — no wires.
When a CFL is turned on, the electrical current passes directly from one end of the tube to the other and causes a chemical reaction between the materials in the tube. This in turn, creates light much more efficiently and without the heat of an incandescent lamp.
