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Old 12-27-2009, 11:17 AM   #144
Bownesian
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This is really getting silly but you are both incorrect about how efficient (% energy used for heat/total energy spent) a bulb is at heating a room.

The vast majority of the energy loss in incandescent light bulbs is radiation emitted in the infrared spectrum. Infrared spectrum radiations warms whatever opaque substance it hits, in this case the room where the light falls. The absorption coefficient of glass is less than 5% so 95% of the "waste energy" that isn't the tiny amount of heat conducted into the socket (the socket cannot get too hot or bad stuff would happen - that's why bulbs and sockets are vitrite and ceramic insulated). The glass is hot because the radiation flux is higher, not because it is absorbing any more than a fraction of the energy.

You also both forget the case of lightbulbs in a basement or main floor ceiling where they are between a room and a floor above. Further, (in the case of central air) the cold air return is also on the floor so heat circulates from the register, through the room and returns to the floor. That requires heating of the ceiling air and the ceiling so the heated air around the bulb does indeed count. Sure there are losses because the temperature around the socket may be a few degrees warmer but that warming is again just a small fraction of the heat that is produced when IR rays strike the floor, furniture, walls etc.
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