i’m heading off to college this fall, and for reasons of which i’m not entirely sure, i am not allowed to bring halogen lamps to school. so i was looking around the internet and at the bed, bath, and beyond website, the descriptions of all of their desk lamps said that they came with halogen bulbs. gah!
my question is this: can i only use these lamps with halogen bulbs? or can i put an incandescent bulb in any of them with no problem? if i can’t, where can i find relatively cheap but decent quality non-halogen lamps?
The school probably banned the halogens because they run very hot, and if they fall over, there’s a fire hazard. Most of them use voltage-changing transformers, so, NO, you can’t use regular bulbs.
There are still lamps out there with conventional bulbs. Keep looking.
AskNott is right - halogen lamps are a fire hazard. He is also right that there are still incandescant lamps out there. Looking on the web will probably not be the best way to find them. Try local stores - especially hardware / department stores as opposed to fancier housewares stores.
Wal-mart has lovely cheap lamps that use regular light bulbs. You could also find them at Target, K-Mart, and all the usual similar places.
A halogen bulb will not only set fires, but is also incredibly fragile and will break into a thousand razor-sharp pieces the first time your roommate staggers in drunk and bumps it on her way to the bathroom, after which you will have to put on your fuzzy bunny slippers and take her to the emergency room while she gushes blood all over your car.