Halogen Lights Opinon

[Barrie McDonald]

One of my boating friends recently installed some halogen Lights in his head and main saloon. I sort of like the effect but not the heat they produce, also I was wondering if these type of lights consume lots of amps. What do other boaters think of these lights??Thanks,Barrie

 

[Jim Ewing]

Some places

I put three in my boat for reading lights. I'm trying one 20 watt and 2 10 watts and both sizes seem to work OK. For a given power rating a halogen will produce more light than an incandescent bulb. But there's that pesky heat problem. I don't think I would switch entirely over to halogen but for special purpose lights I like ours. Now if they could only get those LED's down to my budget...Jim"Prospect"

 

[greg]

I=P/V

I have put several halogen lamps in my cat-22. I bought undercabinet lamps from the local home store. The heat is not a danger, but I guess if you are trying to keep a space cool the lamps could act like mini-heaters. They certainly are good for brightly lighting up an area. The amps they use can be calculated from the simple formula: amps=watts/voltage. This formula works well for battery circuits.

 

[Steve Dion]

Would also like a clarification.

I understand that you can calculate the amp drain from these bulbs, but I have to agreee that it seems that the wattage is the same as the old incandescent blubs but the heat output is much higher. I was always under the impression that there is a correlation of amps to heat too.I replaced all of the cabin roof mounted light fixtures with halogens and the light difference is remarkable. The heat output is also remarkable. The light over the settee was replace with a dual voltage Alpen Glo florescent fixture. It really puts out a lot of light. I have not replaced and of the spot lights in the v-berth or the side spots.

 

[greg]

Heat output

The wattage of a light bulb is a measurement of the POWER being used. For a simple DC circuit POWER= voltage multiplied by current (P=VxC) in the case of a light bulb we usually know the wattage and the voltage used. Therefore the current is equal the Wattage divided by Voltage. Now the wattage may not only be a function of Light output but ALSO HEAT output. That implies that the power (measured in watts) of a light bulb is a combination of Light and heat. Halogen bulbs are effective at turning amps into usable light but a lot of heat is a wasted by product. Actually all resistance type (incadescent) bulbs do this because the filament wire must heat up to glow with visable light. I personnaly like the bright white of the halogens because my eyes are not as good as they were and I put up with the heat. The flourescents give a nice all around light and are much cooler for sure.