Light 'Em Up! Types of Lamps for Outdoor Lighting

Street lights and lamps have changed a lot over the years. Compared to oil, gas, and candle-based lighting fixtures of old, most outdoor lights these days run on electricity and even sustainable solar energy. Given the wide selection of lighting fixtures available, it would be wise to know which indoor and outdoor lights can best suit your home.

A good number of street lamps these days consist of fluorescent variants, which are essentially low-pressure mercury lamps that boast of decent illumination and light diffusion at affordable prices. Fluorescent lamps are also considered energy-efficient and eco-friendly since they contain low amounts of mercury vapor, albeit at the expense of comparative longevity. Mercury vapor lamps, meanwhile, are considered improvements over fluorescent lamps, although these variants are mostly suitable for use in sports stadiums and arenas rather than in residential properties.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs), on the other hand, have quickly become popular thanks to their revolutionary design. Unlike the aforementioned “discharge lamps”, LEDs don't rely on radiation to create light; rather, they generate electric currents to produce illumination. The absence of gases also means that LEDs don't burn out quickly, thereby granting them greater energy efficiency and service lives that set the bar for future lighting technologies.