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Re: bright taillights

To: gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (W. Ray Gibbons)
Subject: Re: bright taillights
From: Roland Dudley <cobra@cdc.hp.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 14:13:43 PST
> getting all messed up, because of comparing apples and oranges.  If you
> replace a 32 w incandescent with a 32 w halogen, it seems to me both
> should draw the same current, because the current draw defines the wattage
> in a constant voltage system.  IF, in fact, halogen are more efficient
> than conventional (as I expect they are), then the 32 w halogen would give

Okay, I'll buy the above.


> more light.  It would be like replacing a 40 watt incandescent bulb with
> two 20 watt fluorescents.  More light, same power.  Heat should decrease,

Isn't the power rating (wattage) of a light (whether incandescent,
fluorescent, halogen, or whatever) the power it consumes?  So a 40w
fluorescent light is brighter than a 40w incandescent bulb because it
converts more of its input electrical energy to light energy, even
though they both consume power at the same rate.  i.e., less electrical
energy is converted to heat energy by the fluorescent lamp.  Or maybe
I'm missing something.

Roland


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