Does a fluorescent light need more energy to start up than an incandescent bulb does?
359925
No.  This is an old "urban myth."  The amount of energy used by the bulb is the rated watts.  So, for an equal number of lumens [the "brightness" of the bulb] fluourescent lamps use fewer watts.  And if you're buying a new fixture, check to see the different color ratings of fluouresecent bulbs, too.  They don't have to make you look like a corpse anymore.\n\nAnother way to look at it is that incandescent lamps use resistance to overheat a solid chunk of metal until it glows.  That takes a lot of energy. Fluourescents send an electrical charge through a cloud of gas to excite individual molecules.  I'm not a physicist, but that sounds a bit easier to do.
613982
Old fluorescent tubes, which required a ballast to start, used a bunch of electricity to turn on - but a small amount of electricity to keep them on. So it was more economical to leave them on rather than turn them off for a few hours.\nImprovements in design have eliminated that anomaly and there is now little difference in the power needs to start and maintain the bulb.
1132393
She could be right assuming that the power sources are the same. You are drawing more current ( however slight which has the compound effect of causing more current draw) using both lamp and fan from the same source, thus producing more heat in that circuit ( heat produced is wasted engergy) It is unlikely unless you are doing this throughout your house that you would notice the difference in your electrical bill. Using two separate circuits and devices you theoretically would produce a slightly less amount of heat thus less wasted energy. Remember we are talking minute amounts of difference in heat produced.
905273
Fluorescent tube light gives out light when fluorescent material coated inside the tube is energized by electrons flowing from one electrode to the other.\nFTL basically has a starter, and a ballast. Starter is used to develop high voltage across the tube to initiate current flow. The ballast limits the current.\nThere are starter less FTL where the required potential gradient is achieved by a ground strip, this potential gradient initiates the ionization in the tube, which helps the current to flow.
56171
1.First of all it is cheaper then the standard  lightbulb. I use it all the time instead of the standard filament bulbs that use the wire to heat up. \n\n2. It uses your power (electricity) to move Mercury vapor in argon or neon.\n\n3.  Did you know that that type of light does not stay on steady? It makes many many  blinks too fast for your eye to catch. I tried experimenting with using  a "fan". Only way to fully see the  blinks very well is when it is reaching end of its life.\n\n4. A modified version you could use to grow  plants. But it is not your standard "flourescent" light.\n\nYou could try (likely) to check howstuffworks because if I would explain would run out of space.\n\nWord of caution as always: Never attempt to open one flourescent up it will explode. It will release  Gas and could be more dangerous if you  break it near yourself then a standard  bulb!\n\nI LOVE IT we have brains on Q /A today!  Now  that could be used on the message boards too.
830929
Compact fluorescents are very like ordinary fluorescent bulbs (see refs.) but with smaller, coiled tubes and reduced-size electronic components (starter, ballast) hidden in the base. The price has fallen because of the huge volume they are now made in. They use less power for the light they produce because the light energy is emitted from an ionized gas (and converted to visible light by the phosphor coating inside the bulb) instead of from a heated wire as in conventional light bulbs. This is a more efficient process because it generates far less useless heat, which you can confirm for yourself by feeling one and comparing to the very hot conventional bulb. They also save the consumer more money by having a very long lifetime, typically 10,000-20,000 hours compared to 500-2000 hours for conventional bulbs. Another advantage is that they don't heat the socket they are screwed into nearly as much, resulting in longer socket life too.
846883
One lux is equal to one lumen per square metre, where 4π lumens is the total luminous flux of a light source of one candela of luminous intensity.\n\nThe difference between the lux and the lumen is that the lux takes into account the area over which the luminous flux is spread. 1000 lumens, concentrated into an area of one square metre, lights up that square metre with an illuminance of 1000 lux. The same 1000 lumens, spread out over ten square metres, produces a dimmer illuminance of only 100 lux.\n\nAchieving an illuminance of 500 lux might be possible in a home kitchen with a single fluorescent light fixture with an output of 12000 lumens. To light a factory floor with dozens of times the area of the kitchen would require dozens of such fixtures. Thus, lighting a larger area to the same level of lux requires a greater number of lumens.\nlumens/sq ft      10.76             lumen/sq metre \nlumens/sq ft      10.76391       lux (lx) \n\n\n\nMore at the link below:
14382
Many of the items and services offered do result in lower operating costs, such as insulation, thermal pane windows, caulking, weatherstriping. There are fuel savings from modifications to your automobile and driving habits.\nSome items are not true energy savers, such as expensive flourecent light bulbs that replace the incandesant bulbs in regular lamps. They will reduce your electric bill. However, if you compare the price of the bulbs and the life of the bulbs, you will find the financial savings to be about a wash. On a more global scale the energy to produce these bulbs and the raw material is significantly higher.
416072
It depends on the wavelength of the light and its energy.
751548
It depends on the lamp and the person. If the lamp doesn't bother you, it isn't bad.  \nSome fluorescent tubes seem to flicker and irritate some people.  Also, some tubes emit a kind of electromagnetic radiation from the ends, that has a negative effect on some people mentally. I have known people to cover the ends with lead foil to solve this problem.\nI'm not sure, but I think modern fluorescent tubes are better than the old ones; I haven't felt irritated by fluorescent lights in a long time.  I use the modern energy-saving fluorescent lights that replace incandescent bulbs all over the house.
436905
THE FIXTURES YOU ARE USING WILL WORK PEFECTLY!\ncreate a small cubby room and call it the lighting closet.\nhouse your ballasts in this room at 75-80 degrees\nballasts and lights are seperate making startup easy and troublshooting problems easier.\nextra wiring involved but very profitable in the long term\nblow a ballast?\ngo to the comfort of the lighting closet and change it!\nyour fixtures dont care about temperature\nyour ballast needs warmth to operate correctly
20622
You'll need to know what the electricity costs per kilowatt hour. They you need to know how many watts each bulb uses per hour. There are many different kinds of flood lights, the standard incandescent fllod light, mercury vapor, halogen, high pressure sodium, low pressure sodium. Each of these has an advantage in light and uses energy differently in producing light. You can determine the light output by the number of lumens the bulb produces.
802847
The lower the resistance of the bulb, the more power it will consume.
162542
AC has less loss over longer distance so is better for wide-area power distribution.  It is also better for high-voltage appliances with high amperage demands (like electric stoves, ovens, dryers, etc.).  Also, before the advent of reliable quartz crystals and such, AC provided a reliable timing source to synchronize signals for televisions (AC in U.S. operates as 60Hz) that is was much more difficult to obtain with DC.\n\nHowever, for local low-voltage, low-amperage power DC is more efficient as most of the types of devices that fit into this category cannot utilize AC directly - they need to convert AC to DC.  It would be more efficient to have a single DC power source using step-down transformers to adjust voltage, than have a bunch of separte AC/DC converters.\n\nIncandescent light bulbs don't care which type of current they are powered from (although LED's do).
180630
I am a certified electrican btw.  A ballast in a flourescent light fixture provides the right voltage supply to the flourescent light tube.  The ballast is basically a step up - or step down transformer, which means just an increase or decrease in voltage to the lighting tube.  The ballast also controlles the voltage/power from the actual power supply from the building, beacuse this power can fluxuate up and down, and/or have a very messy sign-wave.  The volage must stay in a certin small limit range for the light to work properly.  Ballast are getting better for the quaility of light they put ie, colour, less flicker.  And they are also now more power efficent - ballast with a T8 marking on them are the newer kind, old T5's can be very hot to the touch and could also contain PCB's with are harmfull to your health.  Contact an electrian if you find an old ballast that is leaking , that does not have the saying "PCB free, or doesnot contain PCB's.  LOL this is prolly more then you asked for but here it is anyway.  And if this isnt enough here is an intesnse explination of a ballast \nhttp://home.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question337.htm&url=http://www.thekrib.com/Lights/fluor-tech.html
110101
Plants use a very small portion of the light generated by a standard incandescent bulb.  They sell grow lamps which generate a wider spectrum of light that plants can use.
4565
Not true...  generally. Standard bulbs may have a reduced life span as result of constant on-and-off because of the constant temperature fluctuation of the filament. As for energy consumption, the initial warm-up is almost instant such that it "essentially" does not use any more energy to turn on. Halogen bulbs are similar to standard bulbs except the bulb is pressurized with halogen gas for more light output. LEDs are not affected either way. As for florescent bulbs, they do require a ballast to initially heat the gas up which DOES take a little more energy to start up than run - but definitely not 30 minutes worth of running.\n\nYour air conditioner is a different story. It requires a surge of amperage to start up and uses far less energy to simply run. I still wouldn’t say it compares to 30 minutes worth of constant running though - maybe 10 or so. Your AC turning on an off constantly will not only produce a higher energy bill but will wear out the electrical components faster.