Touch lamps are, much like their name implies, lamps that are turned on by human touch as opposed to a mechanical switch.  While they may be fun just to play with sometimes, they can be very useful sometimes.  If you have a lamp in an area where you want to be able to turn the lamp on and off without access to a wall switch and do not want to fumble around with a switch in the top of the lamp, a touch sensor lamp could be for you.  Their ease of turning on and off makes them ideal for use as a bedside reading.  A touch floor lamp could even be placed beside the couch you usually watch TV on, allowing you to control the amount of light in the room without having to move.

How a Touch Lamp Works

Touch lamps can be wired to work in many different ways, but the most common way most of them work is through a scientific principle known as capacitance. Capacitance is the capacity an object has to hold electrons. The lamp itself can only hold a certain amount of electrons, but when you touch the lamp the amount of electrons the lamp can hold goes up because the capacitance of your body is added to that of the lamp. A circuit can detect this difference and the light turns on and off in response to this. If you just have a normal metal lamp, you can even buy a plug box that will convert it to a touch lamp using this principle. This is also why if your cat nudges a touch lamp, it doesn’t turn on. The capacity of the cat’s body to hold electrons is much lower than your body’s.

Touch lamps can also work by sensing the temperature of the touch. An example of this is elevators that have buttons that are sensitive to human touch. Finally, the last possible way touch lamps can work is by having two circuits placed on opposite sides of the lamp. When your hand touches the lamp, it closes the circuit and turns on the light.

3 Way Touch Lamps

There are also touch lamps that have three brightness settings without actually having three way bulbs installed in them.  One touch and the light turns on with dim light, a second touch and it places the light at half power, and then a third touch and the light is at full power.  A fourth touch and the light turns off again.  This is done because the touch lamp rapidly switches on and off the light to change the bulb’s brightness.  It is about the same as if you were to rapidly flick a mechanical switch on and off, the total amount of light output is less than if you left it on.  So for the first touch the lamp may be on thirty-three percent of the time, for the second touch it may be on sixty-six percent of the time, and the third touch will make sure the lamp is on one hundred percent of the time.

Westek 6004 200W 3-Level Touch Lamp Plug-In Dimmer

This is not technically a touch lamp, but it falls into this category.  If you have a lamp with metal in it you can use this handy little device to turn it into a touch lamp with a three way dimmer.  All you have to do is plug the Westek 6004 into a wall socket and then plug the lamp into the device.  Using the principles of capacitance it will then turn your ordinary lamp into a touch lamp.

Touch Sensor Floor Lamps

Touch floor lamps generally have the same structure.  They have a base with a long stem and then a bulb and shade at the top.  You touch the long stem to turn the light on and off to illuminate a room.  These are best placed next to beds or couches where you may not want to move to turn on and off a light.

Touch Desk Lamps

Touch sensor lamps for desks come in a variety of different size and styles.  The only requirement is that some part of them has to be made with metal and this is what you touch to turn the light on and off.  They work on almost any desk and are ideal as a nightlight for reading in bed.

There are a wide array of touch lamps on the market today. They can be used in many different situations, from providing bathroom lighting to being a light for reading.  Most of them work using the principle of capacitance to turn the light on and off and operate the dimmer. Even if you don’t want to get a new lamp you can still turn any lamp that has metal in it into a touch lamp using a special wall plugin.