Halogen Lights & Energy Efficiency

As a type of incandescent lighting, tungsten-halogen bulbs produce a lot of heat as well as light. Their energy efficiency does not compare well to that of fluorescent bulbs and LEDs.

Incandescent Bulbs

The most common type of lighting in the home still consists of standard incandescent bulbs. Incandescent halogens have certain advantages in comparison. They use up to 40 per cent less power while generating about the same amount of light. They also last up to four times as long, about 4,000 hours.

Heat Production

A halogen bulb has a thin metal filament inside that uses heat to generate light. In fact, about 95 per cent of the energy that powers the bulb creates heat, not light, according to C. Vern Veitch of the Townsville Lifestyle and Sustainability Committee in Australia.

Cooling Your Home

The energy efficiency of halogens decreases even further in hot weather, when many homeowners use additional energy to cool their homes.

Fire Hazard

Some halogen bulbs can burn so hot--at temperatures of hundreds of degrees--they represent a fire hazard. A compact fluorescent bulb burns at about 60 F. Do not place halogens in contact with flammable materials or shine them directly on delicate fabrics and human skin.

CFLs and LEDs

Halogen lighting, which is only about 25 per cent as efficient as compact fluorescent lighting, or CFL, compares even less favorably to LEDs, which stay cool and consume about half the energy of CFLs. However, the brightness of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, lags behind both halogens and CFLs, and their higher cost limits their uses and popularity.

References

• Natural Resources Canada: Choosing Lamps
• Green-energy-efficient-homes.com: Are halogen lights as energy efficient as fluorescent bulbs?
• Bookrags.com: Halogen Lamp

Resources

• Townsville.qld.gov.au: Energy efficient light bulbs among give-aways at council Expo
• Eco-wisdom.com: Pros and cons of LED light bulbs