Halogen Ceiling Fixture Pros and Cons

A halogen ceiling fixture lamp uses halogen bulb with a tungsten filament encased inside a much smaller quartz envelope. The envelope is filled with a halogen gas that combines with tungsten vapor. When the temperature is high enough the halogen gas combines with the tungsten and re-deposits on the filament. This way, the recycling process let’s the filament last longer meaning you get more light per unit of energy. But one disadvantage is that runs hotter.

Low voltage halogen lamps such as Aluminum reflector lamps (AR), and multifaceted mirror-reflected lamps (MR) encouraged the design of compact fixtures. This often caused severe problems of heat buildup, however, because of heat that is usually radiate from the front of a directional lamp now passes through the back and into the back. To correct this problem bulb manufacturers developed MR-16 bulbs with a coating that prevents the ‘spill’ from the back of the lamp.

Because halogen bulbs are so small the ceiling fixtures that they go into are also small, but the heat sink issue and the transformer needed to power down 120v to 12v requires that these only be installed in a secure, well-ventilated and accessible location.

That doesn’t mean that low voltage halogen fixtures are impossible or a hassle to use! On the contrary. A clean ceiling with trimless 4” aperture MR16 downlights (just to name an example)can be a beautiful ceiling.