It was only in the late 19th century that electric lighting started to become common in households. Even though it was available prior to this time, most houses didn’t have any electronic connections as it just wasn’t required and also it was very expensive. The majority of light sources were gaseous and produced by burning oils and other flammable materials, and for hundreds, if not thousands of years throughout history, fire was the only way to get access to a light source.
But the discovery of electricity and of course - its commercialisation for domestic and business use - really triggered a chain of events in regards to technological innovation. Before this, discoveries and inventions were few and far between due to a lack of technological input allowing precision and accuracy. But once electric lighting started taking off, this saw a string of supplementary inventions to this original lighting come into fruition. From wireless electric lighting, to neon creations and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) this initial invention in the late 19th century really paved the way for lighting as we know it today.
What is meant by ‘CFL’?
Along the rapidly evolving timeline of lighting, came the compact fluorescent lamp (or CFL for short) lighting in the late 1900s. The reason for their invention was to try and save more energy when compared to the incandescent bulb. You probably wouldn’t realise it in any other case, but it’s likely that you would be able to identify a CFL if you saw one in a shop as they are spiral bulbs that are unlike any other bulb in appearance, though they are also often tubular in some instances.
A reason for them being spiralled is to reduce the length of the bulb. Fluorescent lights are typically longer in length in order to emit enough light. Spiralling or curving any item will reduce its length as it compacts its length into a shorter space by bending it around a point. But this design was difficult to produce as spiralling or bending glass and the elements inside are time consuming. Nonetheless, the value of this bulb remained and so production went ahead.
This difficulty in design led to a delay in it being commercially available on the market. It wasn’t until 1995 that it was manufactured in China to be sold worldwide. To begin with, manufacturers tried to make a unique design in specialised machinery, but this proved to be far more difficult than initially thought. Instead of this, an alternative method was figured out which saw workers making the spirals by hand.
If made in the UK, US or other Western country then the cost for this would have been significantly high, and would have made the price for CFL bulbs almost unobtainable by the general public. But the low labour costs in China kept prices down for consumers and as a result, allowing for a wide range of products to be produced including the CFL grow light used in common hydroponics setups.
These bulbs were very popular once they were sold on the general market as they provided a more energy-efficient alternative to what was already out there. But this was short-lived because of the introduction of LEDs. With easier production techniques, longer running times, lower costs and even lower energy consumption, the LED bulb became far more popular and in fact, it still is one of the most popular sources of lighting in the world.
It’s not surprising that LEDs are more popular than CFLs. Not only are the costs for LEDs lower, but there are a range of other benefits. Firstly, they are more efficient both in terms of their energy consumption (LEDs don’t use as much energy) and emission of light. They are more bright and have less of a yellow tinge. On top of this, without a doubt, LEDs last a much longer time than CFLs. This leads to consumers having to pay out less money on replacements.
Not only this, but these various benefits also make LEDs more environmentally friendly. They waste less energy, don’t require as much material to be used in their manufacturing which leads to less waste as well. In an age where small steps towards sustainability have never been more important, it's indicative that LEDs are the way of the future with CFL lighting being a close second.