I am building an energy efficient house. I'm installing solar panels for water heating, and aerothermic underfloor heating, as well as extra good insulation. I'm now thinking about lighting. Can anyone advise me about the comparative efficiencies of halogen v other light bulbs? The house should benefit from plenty natural light as there are large glass windows.
2007-01-31 02:38:02 · 3 answers · asked by Shona L 5 in Environment
If you are building right now, look at T5 or T8 fluorescent lamps. The T simply refers tot he diameter of the tube. A T12 is 1" in diameter and a T8 is 8/12 or 2/3" in diameter. If you need point lighting, consider LED's. Understand though that many of these are monochromatic - they only give off one color. A few LED's now are polychromatic and produce a more natural color or light. You'll have to hunt for them though. If you can wait just a while longer organic LED's or OLEDs will be showing up soon. SOme of these are truely organic but this family of lights is carbon based.
You also mentioned large windows. You will be better served to have your contractor install light shelves. You have probably seen the glare that can come from the sun shining directly in a large window. It makes the rest of the room look dull. A light shelf eliminates this problem. A light shelf lets sunlight come in an upper window that is not directly visible from the floor. Instead the light bounces off of a shelf and upper walls of that room for just a few feet. Then the shelf ends and the light is now diffuse enough that it lights all parts of your room equally.
Sky lights with short tunnels in your ceilings work much the same way. You can also add light tubes to your house. These light tubes collect sunlight from your roof just like a sky light. That light though is trapped inside a shiny metal tube. You can extend these tubes all the way down to a basement if you want. A diffuser on the end of the tube glows just like an electric lamp when the sun is shining.
I would not consider halogen or other types of lamps. Many of them are not made for residential use. When they are, the quality of light is often poor. Look underneath a halogen or a mercury vapor lamp and yu'll see the color distortion.
2007-01-31 05:13:28 · answer #1 · answered by dobiepg 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you're looking for efficiency, fluorescent are the best. Halogen lamps are just like incandescent bulbs except the gas in side is different so they can run them hotter and get more light out of them BUT they do put out a lot of heat. You can read about it here --
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question151.htm
2007-01-31 10:53:26 · answer #2 · answered by Gene 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
LED lights are becoming popular
2007-01-31 19:22:55 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋