Correlational Difference between Lamp Size & Bulb ?

[wsidepinoy]

It may be late and if my title sounds completely ridiculous I'm going to blame it on the time. With that said and out the way, I had a quick question that I hadn't read about or could find any info on, whether it be here via the search tool or google.com.

My question is...

say you take a 60W Bulb in a 5" Lamp, and take a 60W Bulb in a 8" Lamp, both identically made, no modifications, everything the same except diameter..

which one would be hotter ? or would it be the same ? or a wider effect ?

I ask this because I'm getting closer and closer to nailing my temperature inconsistencies (due to the fact I have a digital thermometer now) and I just wanted to know if it will indeed help heating up a basking spot, ambient temp etc so on and so forth.

Anyone have any ideas ? or any experiments done or can show some data on it ?

TY !!!!

 

[Chris Jury]

It depens on how well a particular make of reflector is at directing the light downwards. This isn't necessarily related to the diameter of the reflector. If two reflectors were equally efficient, you'd get higher temps with the smaller reflector because the light would be more focused, leading to higher temps below it. However, two reflectors likely are not going to be equally efficient, so it could go either way, depending on how each particular reflector directs light. I don't know of any data off hand for various reflectors, so you'd probably have to test them yourself, and see what you get.