Light Fixture Heat?

joasis

I was tooling along this morning, listening to the guru on the radio that does the energy efficient home stuff...and if I caught it correctly, he was referring to the heat from a 75 watt light bulb in an exposed fixture, and that so many of them would add 3 tons of heat to a home...about that time I got static...when it picked up again...they were talking about a new style of can light...uses a lot less in wattage, and doesn't put out the heat? Anyone else here this? I would love to have heard it clearly since energy is going to grow as a construction issue.

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mdshunk

One 75 watt light bulb is about 255 BTU's/hr

Consider that a furnace in a small home in the northeast is 50,000 BTU/hr, you could heat your home with about 200, 75 watt light bulbs.

Yes, there are low voltage halogen fixtures that put out lotsa light with less consumed watts, and there are a variety of fluorescent and compact fluorescent options. LED lighting is making inroads, but it will take some time for it to be incorporated in enough fixture styles to where it's worth consideration.

The true measure of a lighting's efficiency is measured in lumens per watt. The lumen is the measure of the light output. Lumens per watt is how much light per watt of consumed energy you get.

Incandescent lamps get about 7-24 lumens per watt.
Halogen lamps get about 12-36 lumens per watt.
LED emitters get about 15-131 lumens per watt.
Tubular fluorescent lamps get about 33-100 lumens per watt.
Compact fluorescent lamps get about 44-80 lumens per watt.
Metal halide lamps get about 60-125 lumens per watt.
Mercury vapor lamps get about 20-63 lumens per watt.
High pressure sodium lamps get about 60-140 lumens per watt.
Low pressure sodium lamps get about 90-180 lumens per watt.

K2

They might be talking about compact fluorescents but you have probably seen those in the screw in style. I buy fixtures that take a 4 prong compact fluorescent so people can't replace them with an incandescent. They have a ballast in the fixture instead of in the being connected to the bulb. CF's run cooler, probably about 1/4 the elec. usage for the same ft.candles/lux/lumens, maybe 10x the bulb life, and can stand quite a bit of vibration.

joasis

I like can lighting, but there are insulation issues with them, from the heat rising in the can...I got the impression they were discussing something new.

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mdshunk

To a journalist, a product we've all seen in the field for a few years might seem new. They may have presented it as such.

The insulation issues that you speak of aren't really an issue anymore with a good can.

lxdollarsxl

[QUOTE=mdshunk]To a journalist, a product we've all seen in the field for a few years might seem new. They may have presented it as such.




MMMMM theres a thought, light bulbs in a field (wonder if they bloom)

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