{"id":175,"date":"2025-12-12T10:32:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/?p=175"},"modified":"2026-03-27T16:44:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T16:44:50","slug":"what-are-dichroic-lamps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/what-are-dichroic-lamps\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Dichroic Lamps?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Posted on 1 August 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Andrew Evangelidis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last updated on 29 July 2021<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The term \u2018dichroic lamp\u2019 almost always refers to\u00a0low-voltage MR11 or MR16 halogen spotlights<\/a>. The interior surface of these lights is designed as a multifaceted reflector (MR), with the purpose of gathering up the widespread light of the burning tungsten filament and projecting it forward through the front of the lamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Invariably the surface of this reflector is manufactured in one of two ways; it\u2019ll either have an opaque aluminium coating or a dichroic coating. The purpose of an aluminium coating is uncomplicated: it projects as much light as possible forward without discriminating between visible light and invisible UV or IR radiation, either of which can potentially be harmful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dichroic coating is essentially a thin layer of non-metallic film, sometimes referred to as interference film, which reflects visible light from the filament forward whilst filtering infrared radiation and allowing it to pass through the back of the lamp. Since IR radiation is a significant source of heat, the net effect of this is to make the beam much cooler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Looking for Dichroic Bulbs & Lamps?
View our full range >\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dichroic compatibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When buying or installing a dichroic lamp you first have to ensure that the light fitting or lamp-holder can dissipate the back-firing heat. Any recessed or enclosed luminaires that cannot accommodate such a lamp should be marked with the IEC 605598 \u2018No Cool Beam\u2019 symbol. If your light fitting is labelled in this way you\u2019ll need an aluminium reflector lamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benefits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The beam of a dichroic lamp is significantly cooler than other halogen spotlights, which extends its usefulness drastically for displaying heat-sensitive objects such as paintings, photos, leather goods, food, and wine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second potential benefit of a dichroic coating is that it can be used to remove longer [redder] wavelengths of the visible spectrum to create a halogen spotlight with an unusually cool temperature. This has some appeal, because it\u2019s ordinarily uncommon for a filament lamp to output anything other than a warm light, but there is a trade-off in colour accuracy and a lower CRI score. Most dichroic lamps remove only IR radiation and maintain their maximum CRI 100 rating for colour rendering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Low-voltage MR11 or MR16 halogen dichroic lamps have other inherent advantages that complement their IR filtering properties admirably. With a relatively compact filament they are optically very controllable with minimal spill light, and deliver a focused, crisp beam. What\u2019s more, they\u2019re very affordable, and rarely more so than with the bargain-priced Lyco Halogen MR16, which is dimmable, highly colour-accurate, and might last you two or three years \u2013 all for mere pence!\u00a0Looking for Low Voltage spotlights ?
View our full range >\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other forms of dichroic lamp<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Though dichroic lamps are mostly low-voltage, they can occasionally be found as mains spotlights. The common GU10 reflector is really an MR16 lamp with a \u2018twist and lock\u2019 240V mains-connectable base. Cool-beam versions of the GU10 can be found with a dichroic coating, although they are known as \u2018GZ10\u2019 lamps. Great care needs to be taken in ensuring these lamps are installed into a fitting with sufficient heat dissipation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future of cool-beam halogen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The very need to handle unwanted heat in a lamp is, of course, indicative of poor energy-efficiency, and that places dichroic lamps in something of a precarious position. In Australia the common low-voltage 50W MR16 has already been subject to a phase-out, and there have been one or two reports in the UK of its imminent European demise. When this does come to fruition \u2013 and it seems only a matter of time \u2013 it is believed the more energy efficient IR-reflecting and Xenon-filled 12V halogen spotlights will remain available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MR16 lamps have existed for over 30 years, and the threat of their extinction has caused some disquiet among lighting designers worldwide. With the more energy-efficient models seemingly safe for at least another three years or more, we might in that time expect LED alternatives to have been further improved and for their prices to have finally toppled. In the meantime, you can still reap the benefits of a crisp, bright, vivid, colourful, pretty cool halogen source of light!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more advice, inspiration and news take a look at our\u00a0Lighting Advice<\/a>\u00a0section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted on 1 August 2013 Author: Andrew Evangelidis Last updated on 29 July 2021 The term \u2018dichroic lamp\u2019 almost always refers to\u00a0low-voltage MR11 or MR16 halogen spotlights. The interior surface of these lights is designed as a multifaceted reflector (MR), with the purpose of gathering up the widespread light of the burning tungsten filament and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sin-categoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lyco.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}