The Fall of Halogen Lighting

The lighting industry has seen a lot of change and innovation over the last two centuries. With every new advancement in technology, older solutions start to look outdated in comparison. A prime example of this can be seen in the fall of halogen lighting over the years. While it was once an innovation and new hope for the lighting industry, it has since become less common and might even be on its way to extinction altogether. Let's take a look at the fall of halogen lighting in more detail.

What is Halogen Lighting?

A halogen lamp, also known as quartz halogen or tungsten halogen, is basically a form of incandescent lighting. It uses a filament composed of ductile tungsten, a bulb made of either fused quartz, aluminosilicate, or high-silica glass, and a gas-filled tube. A halogen lamp is different from traditional incandescent in a few ways. For starters, the gas and filament provide a high lumen output than traditional incandescent lamps while the efficiency is slightly better in terms of wattages. The glass tubing is also a lot thicker and stronger than typical incandescent lamps.

Disadvantages/New Technology Lead to Decline

When looking at the fall of halogen lighting, there are two factors which have led to its decline over time. For starters, there are unique disadvantages to halogen lighting. Halogen isn't all that efficient in terms of lumens produced to wattages consumed. While there are newer models being introduced which offer 30 lumens per wattage consumed, they simply do not compete with other options. Another disadvantage of halogen is that they get extremely hot during operation. This is a concern because it adds heat to the space and also the bulbs can be hot to the touch. The high heat can also contribute to the fact that these lamps are more prone to explode. Coupled with the gas and the heat, halogen lamps are pretty combustible. Another disadvantage of halogen is that the lamps are very sensitive to fingerprints. The oils naturally on the hand are picked up by the glass and create a dirty lamp much easier than other types of glass lamps.

The second reason for its decline is that new technology in lighting has outplaced it. While the disadvantages of this lamp solution would be enough to contribute to the fall of halogen lighting, the fact that there are better options on the market is of equal importance. If halogen was the only option for lighting, the disadvantages would be overlooked, but with high-pressure sodium, compact fluorescent, and LED leading the way in all the ways halogen fails such as wattages, lumens, life span, and heat loss, it only compounds the shortcomings of halogen lighting.