[l008com]

I have questions about these. I put a 250 watt heat lamp/exhaust fan combo in my bathroom. Right now it just has an LED bulb in it to make sure it works (the heat lamp is on an automatic timer switch). So I'm looking at real heat lamps and I'm seeing that you can get them in red or white. Here's two links for example.

White: http://www.lowes.com/pd_76573-3-14664___

Red: http://www.lowes.com/pd_18669-3-14663_0__

Now, both bulbs draw 250 watts. But the white puts out 2000 lumens, where the red only puts out 460 lumens. So does that mean the red one is going to out put more heat? Since it's outputting less visible light, but using the same power, it must be outputting more heat/infrared light, yes? no?

 

[dmxtothemax]

If both lamps use the same amount of power ie = 250w ?
Then the lamp that puts out less lumens
Is simply putting out more IR heat than visable light.
Just what a proper heat lamp should.

 

[AllanJ]

The red one puts out more heat for one or both of these reasons:
1. It operates at a lower temperature which means that the filament emits light of a lower color temperature i.e. with more red (and infra-red) and less green and blue. But, consuming the same electrical energy, it emits the same total amount of energy into the room.
2. The red coating absorbs what remains of the yellow, green, blue, etc. light which in turn converts that energy to heat.

It may be noted that when the visible light hits the floor or towels or other objects, it is absorbed and becomes heat.

Also, even the clear heat lamp does not put out light of that high a color temperature and the amount of visible light is therefore about 10% or even less of the total energy emitted (here, about 25 watts) with the rest being heat.

 

[mpoulton]

Only a tiny percentage of an incandescent lamp's output is visible light, and that visible light is absorbed as heat when it hits things anyway. The perceived heat output of the two lamps will be essentially identical - the extra visible light from the white one is just a bonus. If you want heat with less light, choose red.

 

[poiihy]

The point of the red heat lamps is to output heat without outputting much light. They are used in situations where you want a heat lamp but not with a bright white light, such as for heating chicks in a chicken coop at night.

If you want light, get the clear heat lamp, if you want less light but more heat, (or a red light,) get the red heat lamp.