Choosing the Right Lighting: Fluorescent vs LED

Fluorescent vs LED: Which should you choose?

There are countless types of lighting available to homeowners and business owners, which can make it difficult to determine the best solution for your specific situation. But while there are a variety of options available, many people find themselves trying to decide between fluorescent lights and LEDs.

Given the litany of benefits they provide, we generally recommend that our customers install LEDs (or upgrade to LEDs, if they're currently using fluorescent lights). But we'll explain both types of lights below, to give you a better understanding of the differences and help you understand why we generally encourage our customers to use LEDs.

Fluorescent vs LED Lights: The Basics

We'll start by explaining how fluorescent and LED lights work, so that you can understand the ways in which they differ.

How Fluorescent Lights Work

Linear fluorescent tubes.

Fluorescent lights are gas-filled tubes containing mercury vapor. When electric current is passed through the gas, it excites the mercury atoms, causing them to emit ultraviolet (UV) light. The UV light then interacts with a phosphor coating on the inside of the tube, which converts the UV rays into visible light.

To regulate the amount of electricity flowing through the tube, fluorescent lights require something called a ballast. The ballast for linear fluorescent lights (the long tubes) is typically separate from the light and situated inside the light fixture. In the case of compact fluorescent lights (the kind that screw into a lamb socket), the ballast is usually built into the base of the light itself.

How LED Lights Work

Installing an LED light.

The term LED stands for light emitting diode. LEDs work by passing an electrical current through a semiconductor material, which then emits light through a process called electroluminescence.

Unlike fluorescent lights, LEDs don't require a gas or phosphor coating, nor do they require a ballast. 

The Rise and Fall of Fluorescent Lights

LEDs are generally superior to incandescent and fluorescent bulbs.

First invented in the 1920s, fluorescent bulbs became very popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Until this point in time, there had only been one type of electric light available: incandescent bulbs – the same type of light Thomas Edison invented at the end of the 19th century.

While incandescent bulbs were certainly an upgrade over the oil-filled lamps of the time, they left a lot to be desired. They were inefficient, produced a ton of excess heat, and rarely lasted more than 1,000 hours.

Fluorescent bulbs, on the other hand, were 75% more energy efficient, produced very little heat at all, and often lasted for 10,000 hours or more. These benefits helped spur a broad shift toward fluorescent lights.  

LEDs: Even Better Than Fluorescent Lights

LED lights work in a variety of applications.

While fluorescent fixtures were clearly superior to incandescent bulbs in many ways, they weren’t perfect.

For example, as mentioned earlier, they require ballasts. Ballasts add more weight to the light or light fixture and take up additional space. They also add another potential point of failure; when faced with a fluorescent light that isn’t working, you have to determine whether the bulb or ballast requires replacement.

Fluorescent bulbs also tend to flicker when first turned on, and they are also full of toxic, environmentally harmful mercury.

So, when LEDs arrived on the scene, they started replacing fluorescent bulbs.

Initially invented in the 1960s (and improved upon significantly in the 1990s), LEDs don’t require ballasts. They’re also more efficient than fluorescent lights. Whereas fluorescent lights are 75% more efficient than incandescent bulbs, LEDs are 80% more efficient.

LEDs are also more durable than fluorescent lights, last up to five times as long, and turn on instantly instead of flickering. They’re also made without mercury, making them more eco-friendly.  

Fluorescent vs LED: The Choice Is Pretty Clear

LED lights are generally the best option for most situations.

Given all of the benefits LED lights provide, it's pretty easy to see we recommend them for our customers who need new lights installed or existing lights upgraded.

They do cost slightly more than fluorescent lights initially, but because they last much longer and provide more efficiency than fluorescent lights, they provide a much more cost-effective solution over the long term.

There’s also one more benefit to LEDs that we haven’t mentioned: They are available in a variety of styles.

For example, it can be difficult to find fluorescent lights that’ll work under kitchen counters or in other situations where space is tight. But you can easily find LED lights that’ll work ideally in these situations and others. Many LED lights will even produce light of different colors at the push of a button.  

Choose Knightly Electrical Services for All Your Lighting Needs

Ryan, smiling after installing a customer's new LEDs.

While we certainly think that LEDs are superior to fluorescent lights in most commercial and residential scenarios, there are still a few situations in which fluorescent lights are the better or more realistic option.

But no matter which kind of lighting you want, we’d love to help. Getting started is easy: Simply schedule a knight today to get the lighting installation, repairs, or upgrades you need!