INTRODUCTION

This decade continues to be one of great change and innovation in many aspects of the lighting industry. Light sources have been primarily driving this change at a revolutionary pace. The rapid emergence of LED's will continue to exploit conventional lamp technologies, notwithstanding recent service life and performance improvements in some HID and Fluorescent lamps. The selection of all light sources along with ballasts, drivers and controls has never been greater. While definitive lists with absolute values for all lamp types and manufacturers go far beyond the scope of this guide, we have categorized them into expansive groups based on similar technologies. Table 1 provides perspective on the key performance parameters of commonly used lamps as well as light emitting diodes (LEDs).