I know wattage makes a difference with energy, but what changes with different gases and why? (ie: Neon lighting [different noble gasses] heat from them,)
Also, any details on lesser-known differences on Compact Flourescents, Flourescents, and Incandescent bulbs?
Thank you!What influences the color or heat of lightbulbs?Your question deals with lighting systems which are fundamentally different from one another, so let's look at each type of light bulb.
An incandescent light bulb works by passing current through a filament which acts as a resistor to the electrical current. The resistance dissipates the electrical power in the form of heat. Therefore, the filament heats up to a very high temperature (approx 3000 K). This high temperature causes the filament to radiate energy in the form of blackbody radiation. Blackbody radiation results in a broad spectrum of light that is emitted. If every color in the visible spectrum is emitted roughly equally in intensity, the light is perceived as white to our eyes. This is the reason that incandescent light bulbs have a pleasing white color, but they are very inefficient at producing light because they create a lot of useless heat.
The other types of bulbs that you are asking about (neon, compact fluorescents, and fluorescents) all create light much more efficiently than incandescent bulbs. Inside of these bulbs there is a gas (mercury gas in fluorescent bulbs and neon gas in neon lights). This gas is hit by electrons that fly through the tube. When a molecule of the gas in the tube gets hit by an electron, it absorbs the energy the electrons energy by increasing the energy level of one of the molecule's electrons. These excited electrons spontaneously become unexcited and release a photon (this is similar to the way a laser works) of a specific frequency of light which corresponds to the energy levels in the gas. This particular frequency of light looks like one particular color in the case of neon lights (red), however for mercury gas, the frequency of light emitted is not visible to the human eye. Therefore, fluorescent bulbs and compact fluorescent bulbs would produce no visible light if it weren't for the coating on the surface of the bulb. These coatings absorb the photon emitted by the mercury gas and emit photons themselves which are in the visible spectrum.
So, to answer your question, the color of light given off by an incandescent bulb depends on the temperature of the bulb. The temperature of the bulb depends on the power that is supplied to the bulb. For neon lights, the color depends solely on the gas inside the tube. For fluorescent lights the color depends on both the gas inside the tube and the coating on the surface of the bulb.What influences the color or heat of lightbulbs?Some light bulbs have different colors you can get .And some light bulbs 100 watts will be lighter than a light bulbs at 50 watts.
Go to fun store they have different color light bulbs you can get even flashing lights.
