Has anyone considered using a the powerful xenon lights to light a reef tank. I have seen them used as car headlights and they seem like they can range from a light blue to an almost dark purple color, but are extremely bright. Anyone know their color tempurature or whether they have significant PAR? Maybe someone should look into it.
Xenon lights? Anyone tried or know the specs
- Thread starter morepunkthanewe
- Start date
A MH lamp is fairly energy efficient when it comes to input power verses lumens or lux output. Far more efficient than incandescent lamps. Depending on the exact lamp and wattage, MH lamps can out perform *all* types of FL lamps. However, once you factor in ballast loss, especially with tar ballasts, MH loose overall, but are still relatively efficient.
-Tom
-Tom
ok, but what about the xenon lights? I don't buy the fact that xenon lights are supposed to have a low output per watt, as they are extremely bright, in fact I have read that xenon gas produces the brighest man made source of light. I'm not sure what wattage the auto headlight xenon lights are, but I bet they are less than our standard 400 watts each, as they are being run off a car batery. C'mon, hasn't anyone else besides me thought about using these bulbs. Next time you see a high end Audi at night, see what I mean. Just the color alone should warrant some ambitious reef entrepreneur to look into their viability as reef lights.
I don't believe anyone has yet tried to light an aquarium with Xenon lamps.. if you are referring to the headlamps that are starting to appear on new cars, these are HID lamps usually ranging in the 75w - 155w range, they are incredibly expensive at the moment though. With an average of about $1200 for a 2 lamp setup.
As far as HID effiency goes, HPS lamps followed behind by MH lamps are among the most efficent lighting available. The ballasts required to ignite and power the bulbs however are not, a utilization of tesla's technology once sold to westinghouse, the conversion of the AC current to the energy used by the bulb is a rather inefficient process which is illustrated by the heat you experience from the ballast.
The advantage is tho, while halogen and halogen/xenon mixes have a constant medium-high current draw, the HID xenon lamp has a higher startup requirement but requires a much lower amount energy to operate while producing a substantially larger amount of light..
it's worth noting that the halogen and halogen/xenon bulbs utilize a filament while the HID operate via arc'd electricity.
[ January 13, 2002: Message edited by: Bishop ]</p>
As far as HID effiency goes, HPS lamps followed behind by MH lamps are among the most efficent lighting available. The ballasts required to ignite and power the bulbs however are not, a utilization of tesla's technology once sold to westinghouse, the conversion of the AC current to the energy used by the bulb is a rather inefficient process which is illustrated by the heat you experience from the ballast.
The advantage is tho, while halogen and halogen/xenon mixes have a constant medium-high current draw, the HID xenon lamp has a higher startup requirement but requires a much lower amount energy to operate while producing a substantially larger amount of light..
it's worth noting that the halogen and halogen/xenon bulbs utilize a filament while the HID operate via arc'd electricity.
[ January 13, 2002: Message edited by: Bishop ]</p>
the zenon lights are balsicly a halogen light one steriods. they are way to yellow for what we need. the reason you see them looking bluw on the newer cars and such is because they use a blue tinted glass or a blue tinted reflector. the problem with them would be that they would create way to much heat for what you get out of them. (ie if a 400 watt MH warrmed up your water 2 degrees the same amount of light out of a halogen would probably heat it 4 degrees *this is just a example not factual numbers*)
MH are the mose efficient type of HID light you can get right now (we are talking lumins / watt),
but if they ever get thoes new sulfer lights down to a 150 to 250 watt version that is 10000K that would be sweet
Steve
MH are the mose efficient type of HID light you can get right now (we are talking lumins / watt),
but if they ever get thoes new sulfer lights down to a 150 to 250 watt version that is 10000K that would be sweet
Steve
StirCrazy: while there is a low grade halogen substitute for the xenon HID lamps, they are not the same. the blue tinted halogen replacements are a way of getting a similar look by filtering out the unwanted spectra and giving a bluer color.
mercedes, bmw, catillac, etc.. are all outfitting the high kelvin xenon lamps on their cars, they light better at night, and do not disturb the nightvision to oncoming drivers (except for the fact that everyone is attuned to the current halogen bulbs so the readjustment causes your eyes to strain.)
refer here for a more detailed explanation: http://www.xtremejeepin.com/HID%20Lights.html
mercedes, bmw, catillac, etc.. are all outfitting the high kelvin xenon lamps on their cars, they light better at night, and do not disturb the nightvision to oncoming drivers (except for the fact that everyone is attuned to the current halogen bulbs so the readjustment causes your eyes to strain.)
refer here for a more detailed explanation: http://www.xtremejeepin.com/HID%20Lights.html
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