QU: Are there any halogen or incandescent lights that are as efficient as fluorescent?

Someone can into the Centre recently with this question. They were renovating a home and told me that they didn't like fluorescent lights for the home, and wondered about whether there were any halogen or incandescent lights that were as efficient as fluorescents. I said that I didn't think so, not to my knowledge. If anyone out there knows any differently, please correct me. 

Wikipedia ("the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit") is a great reference on these questions. The current entry does a great job of describing the "Advantages over incandescent lamps" and the innefficiency of halogens and incandescents. It notes that "95% of the power consumed by an incandescent light bulb is emitted as heat, rather than as visible light. An incandescent light bulb, with this ~5% efficiency, is about one quarter as efficient as a fluorescent lamp (about 20% efficiency)."

However, Wikipedia's information on the quality of fluorescent light is outdated (and I encourage anyone to re-write it - I may beat you to it but Imay not). The Lighting Design Lab at the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance has a great page on how far the lighting quality of fluorescents have come. In his article "I Hate Fluorescent!", Eric Strandberg notes that fluorescents have received this bad rap for three reasons:

• the poor color qualities of the old style lamps (T-12),
• the noise and flicker from magnetic ballasts
• the indifferent lighting design applied to many commercial spaces.

So I would encourage you all to look at fluorescents for the home. They are not the product they used to be, and with climate change upon us, it doesn't hurt to at least try the new products out.

The below photo shows our very own t-5's looking lovely at our ribbon cutting.