The word halogen refers to any of the following five chemically related nonmetallic elements: fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine and astatine. A halogen lamp bulb is a complicated lighting system. Halogen lights were designed to produce a level of lighting like no other light bulb before it. A majority of new luxury and sport vehicles on the market today come with halogen light bulbs and many lamp companies are now using the halogen technology on their new lamps.

Compared to a conventional light bulb, halogen bulbs have a much longer life and produce more light. A normal light bulb is not very efficient in the way that it dispenses light. A regular incandescent light bulb life span is approximately 750 to 1000 hours. The reason that an incandescent bulb isn’t as efficient as a halogen bulb is in the way it radiates light. In the process of radiating light, an incandescent bulb also radiates massive amounts of infrared heat. In conclusion the incandescent light bulb produces more heat than light.

The incandescent lamp bulb uses tungsten filament to produce light, as does the halogen lamp bulb. However the difference between an incandescent light and a halogen light is in the way their filaments are holstered and the gases that fill them. When the incandescent bulb is switched on, the tungsten from the filament is evaporated into gas element inside the glass of the bulb. When the tungsten is morphed into gas, it is then resonated onto the inner walls of the light bulb and when a sufficient amount of tungsten is used from the filament the light bulb is no longer useful.

A halogen light bulb also uses the tungsten filament but it is enclosed inside a smaller quartz envelope. Since the tungsten filament is protected inside a quartz envelope it has a higher level of heat resistance. Inside the quartz envelope is a special gas from the halogen element group. This gas takes the tungsten particles that have been evaporated back to the filament so it can be reused. Unlike incandescent bulbs which use the tungsten then dispose of it.

Whenever shopping for a halogen replacement bulb make sure the plug design on the bulb matches the socket design on the lamp. The average life span of a halogen light is approximately between 2,000 and 4,000 hours. Compared to the life span of the legacy incandescent light bulb, halogen lamps will pay themselves off 3 times over before they “burns out”. The average life of an incandescent light bulb is between 750 and 1,000 hours. A halogen replacement bulb should be of high quality and as with replacing any item with a quality replacement, you ensure a longer life.