What light bulb should I buy?

It can be very confusing these days when you go to the hardware store to buy a light bulb.  It used to be you just chose the wattage bulb you needed and put it in the fixture.  I hope the information below helps you find the best bulb for your application.

Read below to understand how each light bulb produces light and check out the table I created below to compare one bulb to the other.

How is the light produced?

Incandescent
An electric current passes through a tungsten filament, heating it to a temperature that produces light.

Halogen
It is an advanced form of incandescent light. However, the tungsten filament is encased in a quartz envelop which is filled with a halogen gas.

CFL (Compact Fluorescent)
An electric current is driven through a tube containing argon and a small amount of mercury vapor. This generates invisible ultraviolet light that excites a fluorescent coating (called phosphor) on the inside of the tube, which then emits visible light.

LED (Light Emitting Diode)
An electrical current passes through a microchip, which illuminates the tiny light sources we call LEDs and the result is visible light.

Light Bulb Comparison Chart

*  Did you know that the original Easy Bake Oven used a 100 Watt incandescent bulb to produce the heat required to bake?