4.7Adventures in Lighting: Fixture Types 101, Part III—The PAR
The next in line in our examination of lighting fixtures is the PAR—which is an acronym for parabolic aluminum reflector.
The classic PAR is a reflector and lamp all-in-one, it is a sealed-beam lamp, like old-school car headlights. The rear of the envelope (the glass enclosure of the bulb) has a parabolic shape and is coated in an aluminum material for a built-in reflector. The filament of the lamp is placed in the precise focal point of the parabolic reflector so that the light rays exiting the lens are parallel. This creates a focused beam of illumination from a compact, lightweight lamp.
A standard household PAR lamp. The reflector is built into the fixture.
The PAR has four ...
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