Kitchens by Riland

For you to understand how the halogen light bulb works, you need to look at how the normal bulbs function. The ordinary bulbs have a relatively sized glass envelope. The material used is usually thin and frosted. The bulb is usually filled with an inert gas. The gas could be nitrogen or argon; sometimes it is a mixture of both. There is a filament at the heart of the bulb. This filament is made from tungsten. The filament is usually heated up by electricity to approximately 2500 C°. This great amount of heat lights up the metal and the result is illumination. The whole process is known as incandescence.

When a normal bulb is subjected to normal use, it will go for durations of one thousand hours or less. This undermines its efficiency. During the lighting process, the normal bulb emits a lot of infrared heat. This means at the completion of incandescence, there will be a higher production of heat than there will be of light produced. The heat is translated as wasted energy since the sole purpose of a bulb is to provide lightning and not heat. The high emission of heat causes the tungsten to evaporate. The deposits are settled on the glass envelope. When the filament thins out, it eventually breaks and the bulb stops functioning.

For halogen lighting, the filament is also made from the same material. The only difference is the envelope holding it. Instead of using a glass envelope, halogen bulbs are made from quartz. The envelope is of a smaller size. The restricted space would cause some form of melting if the envelope was made of glass. The gas that is used inside the bulb is the halogen gases. The reason why these gases are used instead of the other gases is because they merge with the vapor produced by the tungsten. When the temperatures are too high the two elements will fuse together and evaporate. Upon evaporation, the mixture will re-deposit itself on the filament.

This trait is what causes the halogen bulbs to last longer than the ordinary bulbs. It is an example of the recycling process. It makes it possible for the filament to heat up at higher temperatures. The result of a heated filament is increased lighting for each unit of energy consumed. This bulb is also a major producer of heat. The reason for this is the close proximity of the filament to the bulb’s envelope. The halogen bulb produces more heat than an ordinary bulb.