Hi. I am going to work on a project that has to do with smart solution for a open-air café. What it is going to involve is that we are going to use a Arduino MEAG 2560 to read information from a weather source and the Arduino is going to control some motors, LEDS, etc.
We have decided to use a halogen lamp as a heating light bulb, that will turn on when the weather reports that the temperature is around 0-2 degrees (that indicates that the it is cold outside).
We are going to use a halogen lamp that needs 12 V and has a effect that is either 10 W or 20 W.
Since the Arduino cannot deliever a high current and a 12 extern voltage source will be used to drive the halogenlamp, a transistor is going to be needed in order to drive a higher current.
I wonder, what should I think about when the lamp has a effect on for example 10 W and how can a circuit look like in order to drive a 12 v halogen lamp from the Arduino?
Also, this is the halogenlamp I will be buying. Since it has a stift sockel, is it even possible to connect it to an Arduino?
http://www.kjell.com/sortiment/el/belysning/lampor-ljuskallor/halogen/halogenlampor-g4-p6376