Halogen Light Bulbs - An Economical Alternative

Feeling blue about the cost of your halogen light bulbs? Buy'em at a discount! Halogen bulbs are more expensive than the incandescent kind you get at the corner store, but in the long run, they're much more economical: not only do you get more light, they last longer than incandescents. Even better, you can get them at a more-than-decent discount if you try. In fact, our online merchants have all the discount halogen bulbs you can handle.

Bright light, bright light!

Halogen bulbs are ideal for most household lighting needs, either in fixtures or in lamps. At these discount prices, you'll be able to afford more of them, too. The blue-tinted light you'll get from halogen bulbs isn't quite as bright as that from xenon lamps, but then again xenon's a better fit for lab equipment and theater projectors - and halogen's plenty bright for most needs. Not only are they great in lamps, halogen bulbs are used in flashlights, motorcycle lights, and auto lights. You'll also find quartz halogen bulbs in high-powered searchlights and other industrial-strength lighting.

The halogen-quartz blues; or, how it all works

Like an incandescent bulb, a halogen bulb consists of a tungsten filament enclosed inside a transparent envelope containing a gas. However, in the halogen bulb the envelope is made of quartz and the gas is a halogen ("salt former"), either fluorine or chlorine. The quartz is necessary because a halogen bulb is smaller than an incandescent bulb: if glass were used, it would melt. When electricity passes through the tungsten filament, the filament glows white-hot at a temperature of 4500 degrees Fahrenheit. As tungsten atoms evaporate, the halogen gas redeposits them on the filament, helping the bulb last much longer than a normal incandescent bulb.