1|P a g e ExaM StudY

07/ ILLUMINATION (LIGHT)

ILLUMINANCE

 This is the quotient of the illuminous flux incident on an element of the surface
at a point of surface containing the point, by the area of that element.
 The lighting level produced by a lighting installation is usually qualified by the
illuminance produced on a specified plane. In most cases, this plane is the major
plane of the tasks in the interior and is commonly called the working plane. The
illuminance provided by an installation affects both the performance of the tasks
and the appearance of the space.

LUX (LX)

 This is the illuminance produced by a luminous flux of one lumen, uniformly

distributed over a surface area of one square metre. One lux is equal to one lumen
per square meter.

LUMINOUS EFFICACY (LM/W)

 This is the ratio of luminous flux emitted by a lamp to the power consumed by
the lamp. It is a reflection of efficiency of energy conversion from electricity to light
form.

COLOUR RENDERING INDEX (RI)

 Is a measure of the degree to which the colours of surfaces illuminated by a given

light source confirm to those of the same surfaces under a reference illuminent;
suitable allowance having been made for the state of Chromatic adaptation.

TYPES OF LIGHT

 The different types of lights include the following-

 Incandescent lamps
1. Compact fluorescent lamps
2. Halogen lamps
3. Metal halide Lamps
4. Light Emitting Diode
5. Fluorescent tube
6. Neon lamps
2|P a g e ExaM StudY

7. High intensity discharge lamps

8. Low pressure sodium lamps

A. INCANDESCENT LAMPS :-

 Incandescent bulbs are standard bulbs and many people are quite familiar with
these bulbs. These incandescent bulbs are available in a broad range of sizes and
voltages.
 These bulbs are being gradually replaced by LEDs, fluorescent lamps, and other
service based new technologies.
 The reason for this is that when this bulb is switched on, the sudden flow of
current, energy and heat penetrate the thin areas, which in turn heat up the
filament; once the filament heats up, it tends to break and burns out the bulb.
 Incandescent bulbs can last for 700 – 1000 hours and can also be used with a
dimmer. Incandescent bulbs generate steady heat, which is quite good for house
hold applications. Luminous efficiency of incandescent lamp is about 15 lumens
per watt.

B. COMPACT FLUORESCENT LAMPS :-

 A compact fluorescent lamp is a modern type of light bulb that works like a
fluorescent lamp. It contains mercury, which cause difficulties to its disposal. A
CFL is designed to replace an Incandescent lamp.Generally, CFLs use less power,
3|P a g e ExaM StudY

produce same amount of light and have long lifespan.Most of the compact
fluorescent lamps consist of two or three tubular loops.
 Sometimes they even look quite similar to incandescent bulbs. These lamps
cannot be used with dimmers, and usually they can last for 10,000 hours.
Luminous efficiency of a compact fluorescent lamp is about 60 lumens per watt.

C.HALOGEN LAMPS :-

 A halogen lamp consists of a tungsten filament, which is sealed with a compact

transparent envelop and filled with an inert gas and small amount of halogen
(bromine or iodine).
 These lamps are smaller than the conventional lamps. Halogen increases the
lifetime and brightness of the lamps. Luminous efficiency of a halogen lamp is
about 25 lumens per watt.

D.METAL HALIDE LAMPS:-

 Metal halide lamps consist of a discharge tube or arc tube within a bulb. This
tube can be made from either ceramic or quartz and contains mercury, MH salts
and a starting gas. Metal halide lamps produce a great amount of light for their
size, and these lamps are one of the most efficient lamps.
 These lamps are most commonly used in halls, traffic lights, on stages and in
outdoor lighting systems for commercial purposes.

E.LIGHT EMITTING DIODE :-

 LED lamp is an electrical component that emits light through the movement of
electrons in a semiconductor device. It lacks a filament,uses less power and has
a long lifespan. LEDs produce more light than incandescent lamps and help save
energy in energy-conserving devices.
 LEDs are usually assembled into a light bulb to be used as a LED lighting system.
These diodes can emit light of an intended color without the use of color filters.
The initial cost of a LED is generally high and these are used to build electronic
projects.

F.FLUORESCENT TUBE :-

 A fluorescent lamp is a low weight mercury vapour lamp that uses fluorescence
to deliver visible light. An electric current in the gas energizes mercury vapor
which delivers ultraviolet radiation through discharge process and the ultraviolet
4|P a g e ExaM StudY

radiation causes the phosphor coating of the lamp inner wall to radiate visible
light.
 Before going through the working principle of a fluorescent lamp, we will first
show the circuit of a fluorescent lamp in other words circuit of tube light.

 Here we connect one ballast, and one switch and the supply is series as shown.
Then we connect the fluorescent tube and a starter across it.
 When we switch ON the supply, full voltage comes across the lamp and as well as
across the starter through the ballast. But at that instant, no discharge happens,
i.e., no lumen output from the lamp.
 At that full voltage first the glow discharge is established in the starter. This is
because the electrodes gap in the neon bulb of starter is much lesser than that of
the fluorescent lamp.
 Then gas inside the starter gets ionized due to this full voltage and heats the
bimetallic strip. That causes to bend the bimetallic strip to connect to the fixed
contact. Now, current starts flowing through the starter. Although the ionization
potential of the neon is more than that of the argon but still due to small electrode
gap, a high voltage gradient appears in the neon bulb and hence glow discharge
gets started first in the starter.
 As soon as the current starts flowing through the touched contacts of the neon
bulb of the starter, the voltage across the neon bulb gets reduced since the
current, causes a voltage drop across the inductor (ballast).
 At reduced or no voltage across the neon bulb of the starter, there will be no more
gas discharge taking place and hence the bimetallic strip gets cool and breaks
away from the fixed contact. At the time of breaking of the contacts in the neon
bulb of the starter, the current gets interrupted, and hence at that moment, a
large voltage surge comes across the inductor(ballast).
5|P a g e ExaM StudY


 This high valued surge voltage comes across the fluorescent lamp (tube light)
electrodes and strikes penning mixture (mixture argon gas and mercury vapor).
 Gas discharge process gets started and continues and hence current again gets a
path to flow through the fluorescent lamp tube (tube light) itself. During
discharging of penning gas mixture the resistance offered by the gas is lower than
the resistance of starter.
 The discharge of mercury atoms produces ultraviolet radiation which in turn
excites the phosphor powder coating to radiate visible light.
 Starter gets inactive during glowing of fluorescent lamp (tube light) because no
current passes through the starter in that condition.
 A fluorescent tube is a gas discharge tube that uses a fluorescence to produce
visible light.
 Luminous efficiency of a fluorescent tube is about 45 to 100 lumens per watt.
Compared with the incandescent bulbs, fluorescent tubes use less power for the
same amount of light, and are usually more complex and expensive than the
incandescent lamps. Fluorescent lamps do not have good color representation
ability, but these tubes are cool in appearance and color.
 Fluorescent tubes can be used in many places around a home,but cannot be used
with dimmers.

G.NEON LAMPS :-

 A neon lamp is a gas-discharge lamp that contains gas at low pressure. It is

assembled by mounting two electrodes within a small glass envelop. Standard
brightness bulbs are filled with an argon or neon gas mixture, and high-
brightness lamps are filled with a pure neon gas.
 When a voltage is applied, then the gas ionizes and starts to glow allowing a very
small current to travel from one electrode to the other electrode. Once the gas
ionizes, the operation of the lamp can be maintained at a lower voltage, and the
maintaining voltage may vary between 10-20 volts depending on the lamp and
operating current.
6|P a g e ExaM StudY

H.HIGH INTENSITY DISCHARGE LAMPS :-

 These lamps are specially designed with inner glass tubes that include tungsten
electrodes with electrical arc. This inner glass tube is filled with both metals and
gas. With the immunity of the self-ballasted lamps, auxiliary equipment (starters
and ballasts) must be provided for proper operation of each bulb.
 These lamps produce a large quantity of light compared to the fluorescent and
incandescent lamps. High-intensity-discharge lamps are normally used when
high levels of light are required over large areas which include outdoor activity
areas, gymnasiums, large public areas, pathways, roadways and parking lots.

i.Low pressure sodium lamps :-

 Low-pressure-sodium lamp is the first sodium lamp which has the maximum
efficiency than all the other lighting systems. These lamps operate much like a
fluorescent lamp and there is a brief heat up period for the lamp to reach full
brightness. Low pressure sodium lamps are commonly used in places like roads,
pathways, outdoor areas and parking lot wherein color is not important as such.

HPSV Lamps

 High-pressure sodium lamps (also known as HPS Lamps or HPS lights) are a type
of sodium lamp that is widely used in industrial lighting and many public outdoor
areas. They are commonly used in public parking lots, roadways, and other
security areas.
 A big driver behind their use is their high efficiency – around 100 lumens per Watt
(when measured for photopic lighting conditions)
 Some higher-power lamps (>600 Watt) can achieve efficacies of around 150
lumens per watt.
7|P a g e ExaM StudY

 It has an inner PCA arc tube that is filled with xenon gas. This xenon gas is used
for starting purpose of the lamp as ionization potential of xenon gas is lowest
among all other inert gases used for this purpose. In addition to xenon gas sodium
mercury amalgam is present in this arc tube, too. In each end, back wound and
coated tungsten electrodes are mounted. To seal the tube monolithic seal is used
instead of niobium end cap.
 The arc tube is inserted into a heat resistant outer bulb. It is supported by an end
clamp that is floating. This end clamp permits the entire structure to expand and
contract without distorting.
 The space between the tube and the bulb is a vacuum space. This vacuum space
is needed to insulate heat from the arc tube because it is necessary to keep the
arc tube at required temperature to sustain arc during normal operation. High
pressure sodium lamp has very small diameter (3/8 inch). So there is no enough
space to provide any starting electrode in the arc tube. So a higher voltage is
required to initiate the arc. A ballast with igniter is used for this purpose. High
voltage is fed to the lamp from the ballast by using the phenomenon of
superimposing a low energy high voltage pulse.
 Generally a typical pulse has a peak voltage of 2500V and it has durability for
only 1 microsecond only. This high voltage pulse makes the xenon gas ionized
sufficiently. Then it initiates and maintains the xenon arc. The initial arc has sky
blue color. Amalgam used in the reservoir formed inside the arc tube. It is in the
back of one of the electrodes.
 It is normally vaporized during lamp operation. As the xenon arc has started
temperature of arc tube is increased which first vaporizes mercury and the lamp
start glowing with bluish white color. This color represents the effect of the xenon
and mercury mixture at excitation. Gradually the temperature again rises, and
sodium becomes vaporized lastly and becomes excited, a low pressure
monochromatic yellow sodium spectrum results.
 During the period of sodium spectral line becomes at 589 nm. With temperature
the sodium pressure increases from 0.02 atm in the monochromatic discharge to
over 1 atm in the final steady state, broad spectrum condition. Also presence of
excited mercury and xenon gives bluish effect to the lamp radiation and finally
pleasant golden bright light comes out.
8|P a g e ExaM StudY

These lamps have high luminous efficacy and life span is about 24000 hours.

Mercury vapor lamps

 Mercury vapor lamps were the first high intensity discharge lamps to be
commercially available for a wide variety of lighting applications. Mercury vapor
lamps are bright, long-lasting light sources that are often used to light large areas
such as streets, gyms, sports arenas, banks, or stores.
 The bulbs have an inner quartz tube containing the mercury vapor discharge.
This is enclosed by an outer glass bulb that filters out harmful short-wavelength
ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
 There are two types of mercury vapor light bulbs sold in the U.S.
 T type light bulbs have a self-extinguishing feature that shuts off the light within
15 minutes after the outer bulb is broken.
 R type light bulbs do not have a self-extinguishing feature. They should only be
installed in light fixtures that are fully enclosed by a lens of glass or plastic, or
used only in areas where people will not be exposed to UV radiation if the outer
bulb breaks.