Electric Lighting: Focus on Lamp Technologies

Electric lighting has advanced tremendously in the past few decades, yet the leading technologies in use today still generate 90% of their output as heat (incandescent lighting), or rely on the toxic heavy metal mercury to operate (fluorescent and nearly all HID light sources). Clearly there is still progress to be made.

This article provides background on electric lighting technologies, reviews the most important recent advances, and looks at where lighting is heading. The focus is on technology, not design, though the two are inextricably linked. More specifically, the focus is on lamp (light source) technologies. Lighting controls, including strategies for integrating electric lighting with daylighting, will be addressed in a future article.