Lighting Experiment
Check out reference materials on the Lighting Experiment Here!
Basic Premise
Lighting comprises roughly 25% of the world's energy consumption. Thus,
even a small increase in the efficiency of lighting would make a significant
difference in the exponential consumption of fossil fuels. Unless of course
we do the smart thing and use nuclear power, but that's another issue.
The Bulb
High-intensity discharge (HID) metal-halide lamps are widely used for
commercial and industrial lighting. They provide excellent color and efficiency.
Like a standard fluorescent bulb, a metal-halide bulb operates by using
two electrodes to ionize a gas mixture and cause it to glow. Mercury is
a major component of the gas arc tube and is the first element to be excited,
creating an initial burst of blue light. The mercury light excites
the other constituents, producing a richer spectrum. Metal-halide lamps
typically operate on a Scandium-Sodium or Dysprosium-Iodide primary chemistry.
The Goals
The overall goal of the study is to understand
and control the infrared losses of metal-halide HID lamps. Because emission
in the infrared is invisible to the human eye, it represents an inefficiency
in the bulb's operation. If infrared radiation is reduced or somehow converted
to visible light, the bulb's efficiency is enhanced. To do this, it is
necessary to have a basic understanding of the processes which lead to
these losses.
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Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC), Stoughton, WI Principal Researcher: Geoff Bonvallet gabonvallet@students.wisc.edu |
UW Campus, Madison, WI Principal Researcher: David Smith djsmith22@facstaff.wisc.edu |
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