Halogen Lamps

A Tungsten halogen lamp is basically the same as an incandescent lamp in which a tungsten filament is sealed in a vacuum, however the filament in a Halogen lamp is placed into a compact glass envelope under pressure with an inert gas and a small amount of halogen. The halogen cycle created and increased pressure increases the lifetime of the bulb. The halogen lamp can operate its filament at a higher temperature than a standard gas filled lamp of similar power without loss of operating life. This gives it a higher efficiency than conventional incandescent lamps. It also gives a whiter light compared to an incandescent lamp, and designed to have twice the life as an incandescent.

 The function of the halogen is to set up a reversible chemical reaction with the tungsten evaporating from the filament. In ordinary incandescent lamps, this tungsten is mostly deposited on the inside of the glass. The halogen cycle in Tungsten Halogen lamps referred to as the Tungsten-Halogen cycle keeps the bulb clean and the light output remains almost constant throughout life.

 It is possible to see a live demonstration of the Tungsten-Halogen cycle in this accelerated video. In the Video the lamp is run at full power and as the lamp is turned down the Tungsten Halogen cycle slows and starts to deposit the tungsten particles from the filament on the glass. When the lamp is run back to full power the cycle starts again and deposits the tungsten back onto the filament.

This technology is now available for a variety of lamps that are more efficient than standardHalogen GLS incandescent lamps that are being phased out, therefore you can have the same quality of light while using less energy. This technology in 50w downlights is not considered to be verygood on ownership costs.

IRC Technology

This is the newest in Tungsten Halogen technology. The IRC (Infrared Coating) is the basic Halogen lamp however has an infrared coating around the envelope that pushes the infrared

IRC Lamp

light emitted from the lamp back into the filament. This effect heats the filament to a higher temperature without using as much electricity to do so. Generally this reduction is around 30% so that the use of a 35w IRC lamp will give the same output as a standard 50w Halogen lamp.

 The other part of IRC technology that makes them more efficient is that gas pressure inside the capsule has been increased to retard the degradation of the Tungsten filament, extending the life from 2000hrs to 5000hrs. Combining the two new additions to the Halogen lamps have made the ownership costs far better.