Halogen house lights for basking?

[Robyn.lux]

Hey all,
I hear a lot about folks using house lights for basking spots, just wondering if the ones in the attached photo would work?
If not, can someone in the UK direct me to any that will?
These are all they had in the supermarket, I figure I can take them back if they are wrong.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

As long as you are only looking to get heat out of this bulb and no uvb it will work. Just play with the distance to get the temperature right.

 

[Robyn.lux]

As long as you are only looking to get heat out of this bulb and no uvb it will work. Just play with the distance to get the temperature right.

Awesome. I have his linear UVB light.
Saw the vet today and he needs extra heat so swapping his basking for halogen now I know it'll be fine (thank you) and using his ceramic for extra heat on the other side of his viv ^.^

 

[nightanole]

Pro tip, they are NOT dimmable. You know what happens when you dim a halogen, the halogen cycle stops...

 

[Robyn.lux]

Pro tip, they are NOT dimmable. You know what happens when you dim a halogen, the halogen cycle stops...

I wouldn't dim it anyway. Is there any point to dimming them?

 

[Brodybreaux25]

Pro tip, they are NOT dimmable. You know what happens when you dim a halogen, the halogen cycle stops...

Can you explain the halogen cycle?

 

[nightanole]

I wouldn't dim it anyway. Is there any point to dimming them?

Some people dim "normal" bulbs so they can tune their basking spots vs adjusting distance or angle. I just thought it was funny that the halogen say dimmable. If you dima halogen it just turns into a really short life normal bulb.

 

[nightanole]

Can you explain the halogen cycle?

Light bulbs dont have perfect filaments, they have thick and think spots in the wire. The thin spots get hotter than the thick spots. The thin spots burn off tungsten faster, and causes the "black" on the bulb glass. Once no more tungsten its by by bulb.

Halogen bulbs bulbs are normal bulbs filled with halogen. So when the the thin parts burn off the tungsten, its trapped in the halogen gas, and then rediposited. So the filament never gets thinner, and the glass never gets blacker. At some point the filament will just get brittle, and snap, and that kills the bulb. The "problem" with the halogen cycle is the bulb needs to be really really hot, thats why normally its a bulb in a bulb so that little fingers can never touch them, and the fact that the oil on your fingers would cause the bulb to shatter.