Lamp

Lamp

What’s climate change got to do with what you design?

Lamp

Products that reduce GHG emission without the active involvement of the user such as insulation and efficient lighting are very effective.

Lamp

Picking a low energy design can save tones of CO2 over a products lifetime.

Lamp

With a lamp energy is used to power it but energy has also been used to produce the materials you use to make it.

Lamp

It is important that the bulb used is as efficient as possible as that will be by far the largest amount of the energy used in its lifetime.

Lamp

The parts of a lamp will be

Bulb

a bulb (glass, metal, and plastic)

Wires

wires (copper and plastic)

Lamp

Something to hold the bulb where you need it

Shade

Something for a shade

Lamp

You might choose to use wood, or plastic and maybe even metal. Sometimes there will also be electronic controls.

Lamp

Energy has been used to make these things different amounts of energy depending on what material it is, how it was processed and how and how far it travelled to get to you.

Lamp

The bulb will use some energy when it is on. Different sorts of bulbs use different amounts of energy.

Filament bulbs

They have a tiny coiled metal wire which glows when it electricity passes through it and also gets very hot, so it produces light and heat.

CFL

A CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) will only use a 20% of the energy and will last about 8 times as long.

Halogen Bulbs

Halogen bulbs give a quality of light that people like but they are not efficient. To get the same amount of light as from a filament bulb you would use almost as much energy.

LED

LEDs (light emitting diodes) are very efficient in energy use and are rapidly improving in brightness.

LED

Manufacturers hope soon to produce ones that are 16 times more efficient that filament bulbs

LED

They last far longer than any of the other types. They also offer all sorts of possibilities of colours and colour mixing.

Activities

Activity

Design a lamp to use a low energy bulb (a CFL or a set of LEDs).
The light from the bulb needs to be used efficiently.

Activity

Think about the design of shades. Research different shades and evaluate how much light they let through.

Activity

How can you design a shade which protects you from the glare from the bulb but allows light through efficiently.