2019 First International Symposium on Instrumentation, Control, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics (ICA-SYMP)
Nonlinear Nature of Incandescent Lamp: An
Experimental Investigation
Yogesh Rohilla
Department of EEE,
IET, JK Lakshmipat University,
Jaipur, India
yogeshrohilla1@gmail.com
Abstract—Incandescent lamp has an important role in the
electrical lighting application and are used across the world. It has
been used as the classic lighting solution for many years and still
consider as parent source of lighting. These lamps use tungsten
filament to emit light. Being a resistive device, incandescent lamp
maintains a high power factor. In this paper, nonlinear nature of
resistance of incandescent lamp has been experimentally verified
with the help of few laboratory instruments. Based on this study,
relationship between various electrical parameters is developed to
understand the nonlinearity of incandescent lamp. This study is
important for power requirement and efficiency analysis of any
lighting infrastructure.
Keywords—Incandescent lamp, lighting, nonlinear resistance,
tungsten filament.
I. INTRODUCTION
An incandescent light bulb or incandescent lamp or simply
Bulb (as it is called in India) is an electric lighting device.
Incandescent lamp consists of a wire filament which is heated
at a high temperature and start glowing. It emits visible light or
incandescence. The metal filament is protected from oxidation,
so that it sustains at high temperature. For protection purpose a
glass filled with inert gas (non-reactive) or vacuum is used.
Electric current is supplied to the incandescent lamp through
terminals (or contacts) embedded in the glass cover. A socket is
used to provide the electrical connections as well as mechanical
support to the lamp. Being a resistive device, incandescent lamp
can be operated with alternating current supply as well as direct
current supply.
Incandescent lamps are available in various forms in terms
of size, colour, light emission, voltage rating, power rating, and
shape. Selection of these parameters depend on application
requirements. These lamps are cheaper in cost compare to other
lighting solutions. Application area of these lamps include
residential lighting, commercial lighting, automobile lighting,
flashlights, portable lighting, decoration, and advertisement
lighting. Apart from these general applications, incandescent
lamps are also used in some special applications such as in
incubators and brooding boxes for poultry, infrared heating for
industrial and drying applications, heat light for reptile tanks,
and lava lamps etc.[1, 2].
‹,(((
73
Dinesh Kumar
Department of EMC and Harmonics,
Global R&D Center, Danfoss Drives A/S,
Grasten 6300, Denmark
Nowadays, many other lighting solutions are also available
in the market such as Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) and
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), which are highly efficient
compare to incandescent lamps. Incandescent lamps merely
convert 5% of consumed electrical energy into visible light.
Moreover, the luminous efficacy of incandescent lamp is much
lower than CFLs and LEDs. It is nearly 15 lumens per watt for
incandescent bulb in comparison to 40 – 60 lumens per watt and
70 – 150 lumen per watt for CFLs and LEDs respectively [3, 4].
Life of incandescent lamp is also shorter than other lighting
options. It is approximately 1000 hours in comparison to 10000
hours for CFL and 30000 hours for LED [5].
Major advantage of incandescent lamp is its lower cost [6],
which is just 10% to 15% of CFL or LED lamps for the same
lumen output [7, 8]. The CFL and LED bulbs include electronic
circuit, which are non-linear in nature and major source of low
(below 2kHz) and high frequency (above 2kHz) harmonics and
poor power factor based on technology used, whereas
incandescent lamps do not produce harmonics and have unity
poor factor [9, 10].
It is a well-known fact that incandescent lamp is a resistive
device. The resistance of tungsten filament which is used in
incandescent lamp possess nonlinear characteristics i.e. relation
between voltage and current is not linear. Also, power
consumed by lamp is not proportional to square of the voltage
applied which would be if resistance was linear. But it varies
proportional to 1.6 times of applied voltage [11, 12]. Reason
behind this is positive temperature coefficient of resistance of
tungsten filament. Even though, the non-linear nature of
incandescent lamp is well documented in existing literatures,
but a comprehensive study and experimental verification is still
missing to the best of authors’ knowledge. Therefore, in this
paper, the nonlinear characteristics of incandescent lamp has
been analyzed and verified with experimental results.
Apart from the introduction section, this paper is organized
as follows: in section II, incandescent lamp construction has
been described, section III discussed the nonlinear resistance
characteristics of incandescent lamp, section IV describes the
experimental setup, section V includes detail discussion on
experimental results, and then followed by the conclusion.
 2019 First International Symposium on Instrumentation, Control, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics (ICA-SYMP)

II. INCANDESCENT LAMP CONSTRUCTION

I I
A schematic diagram of incandescent lamp is shown in Fig. 1.
Surface of the lamp is made up of glass, which is an air-tight
housing (or envelope) filled with an inert gas such as argon,
nitrogen, xenon or krypton. Glass envelope consists of a
tungsten filament inside the lamp. Electric supply is given
through electrical contacts and a current is passed through
tungsten filament. Incoming and outgoing of the current is 0 V 0 V
ensured by contact wires between filament and electrical
(a) (b)
contact. To adhere any chances of gas leakage, contact wires Fig. 2. Characteristics of different types of resistors. (a) linear resistor, (b)
are passed through a stem which is a glass mount anchored to nonlinear resistor.
the base of the lamp. Filament is supported by small wires ܸଶ
embedded in stem. Mechanical support points hold the lamp in ܲൌ ‫ ܸ ן ܲݎ݋‬ଶ (1)
lamp holder and also help to ensure electrical contact. ܴ
On the other hand, some resistive elements does not follow
1. Surface of glass bulb
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of Incandescent bulb. linear principle of equation (1) are known as nonlinear resistive
1
2. Inert gas elements [15], such as shown in Fig. 2 (b), where, the variation
2 of voltage, active power does not vary as ܸ ଶ rather it follows
3. Tungsten Filament
3
different pattern. Characteristics of power consumed by
4. Supporting wires incandescent lamp vs the applied voltage is shown in Fig. 3
4 [16]. Some examples of nonlinear resistive elements are
5 5. Stem (glass mount) filaments of incandescent lamps, diodes, thermistors and
6 6. Contact wire (goes into stem) varistors.
7
7. Contact wire (goes out of stem) P

8 8. Sleeve (cap)
9 9. Mechanical support points
10
10. Electrical contact

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of Incandescent bulb.

Melting point of tungsten filament is 3422 ι‫ ܥ‬and electric
current passes through the filament, heats it up to 1700 –
2700ι‫[ ܥ‬13]. Temperature of filament depends upon shape,
size, type and amount of current flowing through it. Filament
emits light and a very small part of this light falls in visible
range and rest is lost as heat energy.
III. INCANDESCENT LAMP AS NONLINEAR RESISTANCE
As mentioned in introduction, electric lamp is a resistive
device and maintain unity power factor. Its competitors such as
CFL and LED lamps include electronic circuits, which are
nonlinear in nature and having lagging power factor.
Resistance can be characterized as linear and nonlinear in
nature. Characteristics of both type of resistors are shown in
Fig. 2. As per the Ohm’s law, current flowing through a
resistive element is directly proportional to the amount of
potential difference applied across its terminals, keeping
physical conditions constant, as per equation (1) [14]. Most of
the resistive devices show the linear characteristics while
plotting current and voltage curve as shown in Fig. 2 (a). These
types of resistive elements are known as linear resistances,
where active power is directly proportional to square of applied
voltage.
0 V
Fig. 3. Power consumption vs applied voltage characteristics of
incandescent lamp.
Incandescent lamp uses tungsten filament to emit light,
which is a nonlinear resistance device. Tungsten has positive
temperature coefficient of resistance that means resistance of
tungsten increases with the increase in temperature. As
mentioned before, the temperature attained by the tungsten
filament can be up to the ranges of 1700 – 2700ι‫ ܥ‬when current
flowing through it. Therefore, temperature changes from room
temperature to 1700 – 2700ι‫ ܥ‬after applying the electrical
supply. Moreover, variation in applied voltage also vary the
filament temperature, which results in nonlinear behavior of
filament resistance due its positive temperature coefficient. As
a result, active power vary in proportion to ܸ ଵǤ଺ instead of ܸ ଶ
[11, 12].
IV. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
To validate nonlinear characteristics of resistance and
power variation in proportion to ܸ ଵǤ଺ with the variation of
resistance, a simple experimental setup has been developed. In
this setup few basic apparatus have been used which are

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 2019 First International Symposium on Instrumentation, Control, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics (ICA-SYMP)

commonly available in an electrical laboratory. List of levels. A step increase in the voltage, results more current to
apparatus used for this purpose are listed in Table 1. flow through the lamp contact wires. Which in turn, heat the
filament more and temperature start rising. With the rise in
Table 1. List of apparatus requirement for experimental setup temperature, resistance of the filament also increases as it has a
Sr. Component Quantity Specification positive temperature coefficient of resistance. This increase in
1 Single-phase autotransformer 1 0 – 250 V resistance would decrease the current. This process of
2 Multimeter 2 0 – 250 V increasing the voltage, consequently increasing the temperature
3 Ammeter 1 0–2A of the filament and decrease in the current took some time until
4 Thermistor 1 up to ͶͲͲ ιC temperature of filament get stabilize. Once the temperature
5 Lamp load (Incandescent lamp) 1 200 W, 230 V stabilized, all other readings of the measuring instruments have
6 Connecting wires 10-12 --- been recorded.
7 Power supply 1 single-phase, 230 V
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Connection of different components has been done as per
the Fig. 4. Single-phase, 230 V, 50 Hz, alternating current Table 2. Experiment results
Bulb Power Relationship
supply has been taken. An autotransformer is used to vary the Sr.
Voltage Current
Temp. consumption factor x
(volts) (amps)
supply voltage. Supply is given to single-phase, 230 V, 200 W (ι࡯) (watts) ሺࡼ ‫ ࢞ࢂ ן‬ሻ
incandescent lamp recorded in measuring instruments such as 1 0 0 22 0 ---
2 10 0.16 26 1.6 ---
voltmeter and ammeter. Multimeters can be used in place of
3 20 0.21 35 4.2 1.397
voltmeter and ammeter. A temperature measurement 4 30 0.24 45 7.2 1.33
instrument (i.e. thermistor in this paper) is connected on the 5 40 0.27 50 10.8 1.422
lamp surface to measure the temperature. 6 50 0.3 55 15 1.472
7 60 0.33 60 19.8 1.523
A
8 70 0.36 65 25.2 1.564
(0-10) A 9 80 0.39 69 31.2 1.599
10 90 0.41 74 36.9 1.425
Single-phase,
11 100 0.43 79 43 1.452
230 V, 50 Hz, Incandescent Thermistor
12 110 0.45 84 49.5 1.477
V (0-250) V
lamp 13 120 0.47 90 56.4 1.5
AC supply 14 130 0.5 94 65 1.773
15 140 0.53 100 74.2 1.654
16 150 0.55 104 82.5 1.537
17 160 0.58 108 92.8 1.823
Fig. 4. Circuit diagram to measure nonlinear nature of incandescent lamp 18 170 0.6 113 103 1.720
filament. 19 180 0.63 117 113.4 1.683
20 190 0.65 122 123.5 1.578
Experimental setup and connection of measuring 21 200 0.67 126 134 1.591
instruments are shown in Fig. 5. A step-wise variation in the 22 210 0.69 130 144.9 1.603
supply voltage is needed to take the readings at different voltage 23 220 0.72 134 156.4 1.642
24 230 0.75 138 167.7 1.569

In this experiment, voltage has been varied in 10 V step

from 0 V to 230 V. Table 2. shows the observation made during
the experiment. Table consists of five parameters namely,
applied voltage, current, lamp temperature, power
consumption, and relationship factor. In this experimental setup
it was not possible to measure filament temperature, therefore,
lamp surface temperature has been measured by using
thermistor. Power consumption represent as a product of
applied voltage and current flowing through the lamp terminals.
Last column in Table 2 show the relationship factor between
power consumption and applied voltage. As the tungsten
filament has a nonlinear resistor, so its power consumption does
not show the liner relation (ܲ ‫ ܸ ן‬ଶ). Thus, these experimental
results can be used to find the relationship between power
consumption and applied voltage.
Fig. 6. depicts the relationship between the power
consumption of electric lamp and the voltage applied to the
lamp terminals (contacts). Fig. 7. plots the experimental values
Fig. 5. Experimental setup.

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 2019 First International Symposium on Instrumentation, Control, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics (ICA-SYMP)
Fig. 6. The P vs V characteristics of incandescent lamp.
Fig. 7. Relationship factor x vs V characteristics of incandescent lamp.
obtained after comparing increment in power consumption with
increment in applied voltage, as per equation (2).
௫ incandescent lamp.
ܲ௡ ܸ௡
ൌ൬ ൰ (2)
ܲ௡ିଵ ܸ௡ିଵ
Where ܲ௡ is power consumption at ݊௧௛ observation and
ܲ௡ିଵ is power consumption at ሺ݊ െ ͳሻ௧௛ observation. Similarly,
ܸ௡ is applied voltage at ݊௧௛ observation and ܸ௡ିଵ is applied
voltage at ሺ݊ െ ͳሻ௧௛ observation. ‫ ݔ‬is relationship factor.
Theoretically tungsten lamp power is proportional to
applied voltage with a relationship factor of 1.6. Experimental
values shown in Fig. 7, hovering around the relationship factor
of 1.6 and proves the theoretical relation. Zig-zag motion of
experimental results are due to slight variation in supply voltage
quality provided by power utility, minor accuracy issues in
measuring instruments, and some manual errors. A descriptive
statistical analysis has been performed to estimate the
relationship factor, given in Table 3, where a mean of 1.56064
from 22 calculations has been calculated. This value is close to
theoretical value 1.6. Therefore, it is fair to conclude that power
consumption of incandescent lamp varies with the variation in
voltage in proportion to ܸ ଵǤ଺ .
Table 3. Descriptive Statistics
N Total Mean Standard Deviation
Relationship factor x 22 1.56064
Fig. 8. The I vs V characteristics of incandescent lamp.
Fig. 9. Lamp surface temperature (in °C) vs V characteristics of
To further validate the non-linearity of incandescent lamp,
few more results are shown in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 to support this
fact. Fig. 8 shows the V-I characteristics of incandescent lamp
which can be resembled with characteristics shown in Fig. 2 (b).
Fig. 9 illustrate the variation of lamp surface temperature (in
ι‫ )ܥ‬at different applied voltages. As the voltage increases, more
current starts flowing through the lamp terminals, which results
to further increase in lamp surface temperature.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, nonlinear nature of incandescent lamp has
been verified with experimental results. For this purpose, few
basic laboratory measuring instruments such as voltmeter,
ammeter and multimeter have been used.
With the help of experimental data, it can be concluded that
in incandescent lamp, tungsten filament has positive
temperature coefficient of resistance. Therefore, as the
temperature of the lamp increases with increase in applied
voltage, the resistance of the filament also increase, as a result
Sum Minimum Median Maximum
0.12423 34.334 1.33 1.5665 1.823
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 2019 First International Symposium on Instrumentation, Control, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics (ICA-SYMP)

the power consumption varies in proportion to ܸ ଵǤ଺ rather than

ܸ ଶ which would be the case if resistance was linear. Mean value
of relationship factor ‫ ݔ‬obtained from experiment is 1.56064
which is very close to 1.6. This information can be useful for
power requirement and efficiency study of lighting
infrastructure.
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