A comparison of halogen and incandescent infrared lamps for piglets

Godbout, S., Guimont, H., Marquis, A. and De Foy, C. 2003. A comparison of halogen and incandescent infrared lamps for piglets. Canadian Biosystems Engineering/Le genie des biosystemes au Canada 45: 5.15-5.19. The purpose of this project was to compare the radiation and temperature distributions under incandescent and halogen lamps using two different lampshades. The main objectives were to establish the feasibility of replacing typical incandescent infrared piglet lamps with new halogen lamps. Temperatures due to radiation and the required electrical energy were measured. The halogen lamps produced a more uniform floor temperature distribution than the incandescent lamps. The floor temperature under the incandescent lamps decreased more rapidly as a function of the radial distance from the middle (directly under the lamp) than under the halogen lamps. At a 300 mm radius, these differences were (average of three heights and two power setting) 12 and 4.5/C for the incandescent and halogen lamps, respectively. Thus, the incandescent lamps tended to concentrate the heat directly under the lamp producing stronger horizontal temperature stratification; however, the energy requirements of the two lamps were similar. Furthermore, the floor temperatures directly under the lamp with the halogen lamps varied from 30.3 to 34.5/C for lamp heights ranging from 600 to 450 mm. For the incandescent lamps, these values were 36.5 and 42.7/C for the same heights. Finally, the results show that it is possible to use halogen lamps instead of incandescent lamps. However, economic and life time studies were not carried out.