Led tube - intsead of fluorescent tube in future.
Since 50 years before ,the fluorescent tubes have carried the bulk of lighting in offices, factories and public buildings.
Everyone knows them - and got adjusted to its disadvantages.
A little Background of traditional fluorescent tube :
Traditional fluorescent tube is low-pressure Mercury vapor discharge lamp which produce by UV light.
The UV light hits the wall of the glass tube which is covered with Phosphor.
The phosphor absorb the UV light and transforms it to visible white light sources .
The tube needs high voltage to start the discharge, and a devide that limits the current during operation. Most of Flourescent tubes have therefore a ballast and a starter, in new tube these functions can be performed by electronic circuits (more expensive).
The Main Disadvantages Of fluorescent Tube :
If an Fluorescent tube or CFL breaks, the whole building and its A/C ducts need to be cleaned. Only some of the energy lamps are transformed to light. The rest is heat, UV and an unnatural light spectrum. The light is pulsing with the main frequency (50/60Hz). Especially when many tubes are connected to one power line, the light feels uncomfortable and may cause some health problems.
In some buildings where there are many flourecsent tubes installed the capacitive and inductive electricity waves will be unsynchronized. For more than 500 tubes, a special power control unit is needed to be correct to deal this problem..
Due to the glass of the tubes breakage and leakage problems.Mor than 5%-10% of defective new fluorescent tubes are considered to be acceptable..
An inductive kick from ballast provides a high voltage pulse to start the Fluorescent tubes. If the tube is frequently switched on and off, Both the energy savings of Fluorescent tubes and CFL's are very limited.
On top of it, the tubes will age rapidly.
The best option : LED Tube
A real option between to fluorescent lighting are LED Tube.
It contains absolutely no mercury, do not emit UV radiation and are really energy saving, lasting five times as long as fluorescent lamps ..
Characteristics of LED Tube vs. Flourescent tube
Environmental Advantage of LED Tube
Less power consumption
A LED tube consumes only about 30% of the power and a Flourescent tube needs to produce an equivalent illumination
No poisonous substances in LED tube
Flourescent tubes and CFL tube containt Mercury and argon
Recycling of LED tube is possible
Flourescent tube and CFL light are hazardous waste, can't be recycled;
LED tube containts valuable raw materiale which can be re-used, for example , Aluminum, PC, etc.
Carbon Dioxide
Led tube saves about 2/3 of the greenhouse gas an Flouresent tube would create more greenhouse gas .
Long life time
LED tube lives about 5 times as long as FL tube, 50,000 hours instead of 10 to 15,000.
LED tube is Directional
While the flourescent tube and conventional light bulb distribute their light all around, LED tube is directed to an angle of 120°. Luminaries are designed to shade off the non-useful portions.
E.G:
For a tube that illuminates a working area from above, only the fraction of the lamps that hits the working area is useful. All of other lamp is lost - radiated in other directions.
When comparing the lumen, The Flourescent tube needs to produce much more light to achieve the same illumination on a flat surface.
Since in most cases 2/3 of the light of a Flourescent tube is lost that way, an LED tube only needs 1/3 of the lumens to achieve the same illumination.
Economy and High return on Investment (ROI)
LED tube is expensive, more than 10 times the price than Flourescent tube.
A sides of the environmental advantages, LED tube return profits in the following way:
Long operation hours
where the power saving justify the higher price
For example , the Wal-mart is changing all of the Flourescent tubes to cooled areas by LED tubes, ROI in half a year
Frequent light switching
Flourescent tubes doesn't like switching, their lifetime declines sharply with frequent switching
For example : automatic staircase lights, elevator lights
Difficult location
where the charge of exchange is substantial?
For example : high ceilings, factory lighting, outdoor advertising lights boxes / billboards etc.
