Appendix A:
Fluorescent Or Incandescent?
There are numerous advantages to using the kind of fluorescent lighting
provided by the PowerBrite PB9 and PowerBrite Pro7 over the
incandescent lighting provided by competing rack light products.
Here are the main points to consider when making your purchase:
• Fluorescent bulbs generate almost no heat at all; incandescent
bulbs can generate large amounts of heat.
• Fluorescent bulbs last approximately 50% longer than incandescent
ones, with a typical life of 3,000 hours (as opposed to incandescent
lights, which rarely last more than about 2,000 hours). There are
also “long-life” versions of fluorescent bulbs available which operate
for even longer periods.
• Fluorescent bulbs are brighter than incandescent ones and they
deliver much greater light dispersion. This is due to their longer
tube length, which imparts an increased diffusion pattern.
• The quality of fluorescent light is similar to daylight, while
incandescent lights impart an artificial glow. There are also a wide
variety of fluorescent bulb types readily available from most
hardware stores, including “soft glow” and colored bulbs which can
impart distinctive lighting effects.
• Fluorescent lighting systems require no dimmers, which are
notorious for adding noise. Because of the lack of a dimmer and
the heavy silicon steel shielding employed by the internal ballast
transformer (which reduces hum by 20 dB), the PowerBrite delivers
noise performance similar to that of an incandescent system.
• Taking your rack on the road? Fluorescent bulbs travel better than
incandescent ones because the bulb is suspended by both ends of
the lamp. In addition, the fluorescent filament is robust and is used
only to start the bulb and is then switched off (unlike an
incandescent filament, which is much more delicate and must oper-
ate continuously).
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