LED lighting is rapidly invading our life, trying to displace energy-efficient fluorescent lamps that have already become familiar. So far this is not very successful.

Low power, narrow focus of light, high brightness and glare of LEDs do not allow creating comfortable lighting in apartments. But these are all “childhood diseases” of new sources that will be overcome in the near future. But the problem of powering LED lamps deserves closer attention.

If the efficiency of converting charges into light were close to 100%, then this would remove a number of serious technical and technological problems that manufacturers of high-power LED lamps face today. Of course, compared with the efficiency of incandescent lamps, not reaching 3% ...

For an effective sale of products and services, firms have long since “invented” a trouble-free method - exposure of customers to light advertising. Until recently, neon signs dominated advertising. But recent decades have gradually changed this situation: promotional items from luminous cords, or duralight, have spread.

Duralight quickly gained popularity for performing outdoor advertising of shops, contour lighting of bridges, architectural ensembles, and even decorative lighting of residential premises. Often used in the interior decoration of shopping centers, bars, restaurants. It looks very effective as a decoration of Christmas trees on New Year's holidays.

Structurally, duralight is made in the form of a flexible transparent polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cord of rectangular or round cross-section. Inside are miniature light sources: incandescent lamps or LEDs ...

After a shaft of optimistic forecasts about the imminent crowding out of incandescent LEDs, there was a lull. The first samples of LED lamps did not cause delight, but rather bewilderment. Are these pathetic, blinding eyes light sources called upon to replace the usual light bulbs with a filament?

Let's try to answer this, and several other questions. The advent of blue LEDs in 1998 paved the way for solid-state white light sources. After that, the scope of LEDs began to expand rapidly: from the traditional illumination of dashboards to the replacement of fluorescent lamps in televisions and monitors with LCD panels. But the impressive progress of semiconductor sources has not affected household lighting. According to one version, LED lamps are too expensive, so they are not popular with buyers ...

The article discusses the design and application of high-pressure sodium lamps.

It is difficult today for astronomers. No matter where in the sky they are oriented by telescopes, the lines of sodium and mercury will always be present in photographs of the spectra of stars. Such spectra do not at all prove that stars are rich in these chemical elements. The reason is purely earthly: the outdoor illumination of cities and freeways with the help of high-intensity discharge lamps creates such a strong illumination of the atmosphere that sensitive astronomical instruments capture the light of man-made “stars”.

The biggest contribution to street lighting, and the main obstacle to astronomical observations, are high-pressure sodium discharge lamps today. About them and will be discussed in this material. First of all, why exactly high pressure? The fact is that discharge tube lamps ...

The article is devoted to metal halide lamps, the features of their design, operation and application.

Encountering the term “metal halide lamp”, most people have associations with an incandescent lamp, its variant with a halogen cycle. Now this is the most common misconception. Especially when, after the protests of chemists, they changed the already established name “metal halide” to “metal halide”. Without going into linguistic disputes, we agree that we will talk about one of the representatives of discharge lamps.

This representative is rather capricious, expensive and dangerous. Nevertheless, for more than four decades, such light sources have been produced in a wide assortment by leading lighting companies. The annual production of metal halide lamps by OSRAM alone is more than 10 million units. If we add the products of General Electric and Philips to this amount ...

The article considers the advantages and disadvantages of incandescent lamps and the problems that arise when replacing them with modern light sources.

So, the brainchild of the brilliant Thomas Edison leaves us. For almost a century, incandescent lamps reigned supreme in the field of artificial lighting. From super-miniature flashing lights to powerful floodlights. Such were the possessions of this simple, reliable light source, which has not undergone major changes since the invention. But time passes, and the market is filled with various types of discharge lamps, LED light sources are constantly knocking on the door.

Despite a century of improvement, it was not possible to overcome the main disadvantages of incandescent lamps: low efficiency (less than 4%) and short service life. Sophisticated attempts to increase efficiency led to the development of halogen lamps, but they could not qualitatively change the situation ...

Analysis of possible ways and devices of New Year's light decoration of buildings and structures, indicating approximate prices for materials and work.

Why is this needed? Currently, with high competition in the market of goods and services, the decoration of their facilities and retail space is becoming a must. Such actions carry not only aesthetic meaning, but lead to a competitive advantage, because competently designed trading equipment serves the purpose of further promoting your brand. You are one step ahead and the client flies like a butterfly on a light.

If you walk along the evening streets, then in 70% of cases this decoration consists of neon that is already boring to everyone, halogen lights and illuminated windows or signboards outside or inside. Someone will say that this is a classic, and it will always be popular. Yes it is, but any new products in 10 years will also become classics, and the novelty element adds the necessary “zest” to any standard solution ...

We live in an amazing time when the word "economy" penetrates into all spheres of life. Just some 10 years ago, few people thought that soon the usual incandescent bulbs, those same “Ilyich bulbs,” would have to be abandoned in favor of more economical LED and fluorescent counterparts.

Unfortunately, the proposed alternative solutions are not a panacea, because due to the simplicity of the design of an incandescent lamp, its cost is extremely low, and the dissipated thermal power is sometimes in demand, for example, in domestic incubators.

Currently, the production of incandescent lamps is gradually being phased out. Because of this, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a quality inexpensive product: you won’t surprise anyone with a situation where a lamp left by grandfather has been working properly for 5-10 years ...