There’s been a lot of publicity, some would say hype, surrounding halogen lamps over the past twelve months or so, especially since phasing out the traditional light bulb began. But, is halogen lighting all it’s cracked up to be? The truth is, it does have it’s place in domestic lighting, and although not ideal for every application, for desk lamps halogen is superb.

First things first, halogen bulbs are what is know as incandescent bulbs, as are ordinary light bulbs. In basic terms, a thin wire filament is caused to glow by passing an electric current through it; oxygen is kept out by the glass bulb, which is why the filament doesn’t just burn up.

In halogen lamps, the filament is housed within a glass envelope and surrounded by a mixture of inert gas and halogen. The result is that the filament burns brighter, hotter and for longer. The downside of this is an increased running temperature, which means that halogen lamps should no longer be the first choice for inset ceiling and wall lights. This is because they back into a small enclosed space, which makes them a potential fire hazard.

Another characteristic that some people see as a disadvantage is the lack of the rosy glow that comes from traditional light bulbs. When it comes to task lighting, however, a rosy glow is far less essential than clear illumination.

The fact is, light produced by these lamps is markedly different from traditional light bulbs and whilst it is ideal for some applications, it is less useful for others. When it comes to halogen desk lamps, however really you can’t go wrong.

The reason for the increasing popularity of halogen reading lights and desk lamps is that halogen light shows colours bright and true to help reduce eye strain.

You’ll need a shade though – the one thing you can’t do with halogen lamps is have them un-shaded; the light is too bright. The beauty is, however, that the light is very easy to direct so once you put on an appropriate shade (so something that points the light downwards for a desk lamp), the light goes exactly where you want it to.

There is another reason for the popularity of halogen lamps, though, and that is the longevity of the filament. Halogen bulbs will last up to 3,000 hours or, to put it another way you could leave the desk lamp on 24 hours a day, seven days a week and the bulb would last an age. That’s not all – that self same bulb will also use up to 20% less energy than a standard one.

The simple truth of the matter is that whilst halogen lights may not be suitable for every lighting application, halogen desk lamps are brilliant – in more ways than one.

Tags: Desk Lamp, desk lamps, desk light, desk lighting, halogen desk lamp, halogen desk light

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Desk Lamp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.