Materials used in lamps are strongly related to the physical and chemical requirements for efficient light production.

Filament Lamps (glass, filament and inert gas)

• General Lighting Sources (GLS) – incandescent lamps
• Halogen lamps

There is a large variety of filament lamps and their application is predominantly determined by various requirements, such as the amount of light needed, the direction of that light and the burning time of the lamp. When more light is required, the power of the lamp is increased. Other application dependent aspects also contribute to the lamp of choice (e.g. reflectors and transformers to adjust voltage. The latter can vary as 12 Volt, 24 Volt or 240 Volt in case of halogen lamps).

Gas Linear Discharge Lamps (glass/quartz/ceramics, electrodes, mercury/ sodium/metal halide)

• Linear Fluorescent Lamps (low pressure)
• Compact Fluorescent Lamps-integral – CFL-integral (low pressure with integrated ballast)
• Compact Fluorescent Lamps-non-integral – CFL-non integral (low pressure without integrated ballast)
• High Intensity Discharge Lamps – HID (high pressure discharge).

The large range in gas discharge lamps offers consumers a wide choice of products from which they can select the best performing lamp available for a particular application. For general lighting, fluorescent lamps are the best economical choice for energy efficient, long life lamps rendering good colour. The CFL has a similar physical construction as conventional fluorescent lamps yet it is much smaller in size because of different geometry CFLs have two distinct product types. The CFL-integral, with integrated ballast, is a direct substitute for a GLS lamp because it has the same lamp cap and dimensions. The CFL-non integral has a special socket termination and only fits in an appliance designed for this combination.