Power factor and harmonic distortion characteristics of energy efficient lamps

An evaluation is made of the performance of a class of lamps that are generally classified as energy-saving lamps. It is shown that, when compared with incandescent lamps, these lamps indeed consume less real power and have higher relative illumination. However, the energy-saving lamps operate at a low power factor and produce current distortion which is much higher than the distortion produced by the traditional incandescent lamps