Neon lights rely on the electrode heads at both ends of the light to ignite the rare gas inside the lamp tube under a high-voltage electric field. Unlike ordinary light sources, tungsten wires must be burned to a high temperature to emit light, causing a large amount of electrical energy to be consumed in the form of thermal energy. Therefore, with the same amount of electrical energy, neon lights have higher brightness.

According to the materials used for coating fluorescent powder inside neon tubes: ① Most of the neon tubes used are sprayed with "ordinary fluorescent powder", which is relatively cheap and can generally meet the requirements of various colors. ② The "three primary colors" fluorescent powder, also known as rare earth fluorescent powder, has better brightness, chromaticity, and freshness compared to ordinary fluorescent powder.