Incandescent lamp and fluorescent lamp are two kinds of electrical lightning materials. But they differ in several characteristics. On the average, less than 10% of the wattage of an incandescent is utilized to produce light and the rest produce heat. Hence, this is a poor choice for energy conservation. This is because incandescent lamp produces poor and low level lightning. It is cheaper, fast starting and has good warm color and small in size and its life span is relatively shortly.
Whereas, a fluorescent compared to an incandescent lamp has high efficiency. About 20% of its input energy becomes light and 80% is converted to heat, including the ballast heat energy lost. Fluorescent lamp has longer life. However its life span is affected by the number of times the lamp is switched on and off because switching is usually wears out the cathode, it is not materially affected by voltage changes. But it is relatively large and expensive.