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Surprisingly good bottom-tier green metal halide lamp
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It is surprising how good some later Chinese metal halide lamps look. This is undoubtedly their greatest strength there, they can make perfect cosmetic copies of the best products from the West. However, sometimes the most important parts are not the ones that are the most visible. In metal halide lamps the looks comes only a distant second to material/processing quality. The latter is of utmost importance and determines the lamp's performances through life and its durability... not sure those parts are properly replicated here, only a full usage will tell.
This lamp, a green thallium iodide source, was made in the 2010s by Plusrite Electric, a major Chinese manufacturer and distributor of lamps and lighting products with a market presence spreading outside China. This company started out as Falida Electronics Co., Ltd. (Wujin Special Lighting Factory), founded in May 1986 in Changzhou (Niutang Town, Wujin City State, Jiangsu Province), China. This MH400/ED37/U/GDX is not part of the collection, it's only used for garden/party lighting in my Schréder DZ15 (see there). Since I use it less than a few hours per year, lamp quality is not really a major concern here, so I picked up the cheapest green MH lamp that I could find. Its apparent build quality is nonetheless quite impressive, which prompted me to post a picture of it here. And this one is also discontinued, so it is officially part of Lighting History now.
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It is surprising how good some later Chinese metal halide lamps look. This is undoubtedly their greatest strength there, they can make perfect cosmetic copies of the best products from the West. However, sometimes the most important parts are not the ones that are the most visible. In metal halide lamps the looks comes only a distant second to material/processing quality. The latter is of utmost importance and determines the lamp's performances through life and its durability... not sure those parts are properly replicated here, only a full usage will tell.
This lamp, a green thallium iodide source, was made in the 2010s by Plusrite Electric, a major Chinese manufacturer and distributor of lamps and lighting products with a market presence spreading outside China. This company started out as Falida Electronics Co., Ltd. (Wujin Special Lighting Factory), founded in May 1986 in Changzhou (Niutang Town, Wujin City State, Jiangsu Province), China. This MH400/ED37/U/GDX is not part of the collection, it's only used for garden/party lighting in my Schréder DZ15 (see [url=https://trad-lighting.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=1080]there[/url]). Since I use it less than a few hours per year, lamp quality is not really a major concern here, so I picked up the cheapest green MH lamp that I could find. Its apparent build quality is nonetheless quite impressive, which prompted me to post a picture of it here. And this one is also discontinued, so it is officially part of Lighting History now.
Keywords: Lamps](albums/userpics/10005/10/normal_DSC_1538m.jpg "Click to view full size image
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Surprisingly good bottom-tier green metal halide lamp
It is surprising how good some later Chinese metal halide lamps look. This is undoubtedly their greatest strength there, they can make perfect cosmetic copies of the best products from the West. However, sometimes the most important parts are not the ones that are the most visible. In metal halide lamps the looks comes only a distant second to material/processing quality. The latter is of utmost importance and determines the lamp's performances through life and its durability... not sure those parts are properly replicated here, only a full usage will tell.
This lamp, a green thallium iodide source, was made in the 2010s by Plusrite Electric, a major Chinese manufacturer and distributor of lamps and lighting products with a market presence spreading outside China. This company started out as Falida Electronics Co., Ltd. (Wujin Special Lighting Factory), founded in May 1986 in Changzhou (Niutang Town, Wujin City State, Jiangsu Province), China. This MH400/ED37/U/GDX is not part of the collection, it's only used for garden/party lighting in my Schréder DZ15 (see [url=https://trad-lighting.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=1080]there[/url]). Since I use it less than a few hours per year, lamp quality is not really a major concern here, so I picked up the cheapest green MH lamp that I could find. Its apparent build quality is nonetheless quite impressive, which prompted me to post a picture of it here. And this one is also discontinued, so it is officially part of Lighting History now.
Keywords: Lamps")
Drew - yes, they disappeared very quickly. The color saturation of this particular model depends primarily on the arc power load and on the burner temperature. The most saturated green is obtained at 300-400 W, but I ran it up to 600 W (no damages are visible though) and the light color becomes washed out then.
This "desaturation" is caused primarily by the increasing optical output from thallium mono-iodide molecules, which radiate across the whole visible spectrum and into the IR domain. The latter causes a significant drop in lumen efficacy... so it's better not to exceed the max rated power.
Thallium iodide is not the best and most efficient green emitter. Cerium halide is much better with regard to efficacy but delivers a lower green saturation. The best combination is a blend of sodium, thallium, and cerium iodides. This gives both a high lumen efficacy and a good color saturation. With this mix I managed to make small (39 W) green ceramic metal halide lamps which operate at 100 lm/W. I used a few interesting tricks there... I'll post pictures of it someday.
As for sodium, its role is multiple: it boosts the discharge's optical output, it enhances the vapor pressure of cerium iodide, and it lowers the discharge's temperature. All three factors are instrumental to the realization of higher lumen efficacy and light color quality compared to standard MH lamps.
In the green CMH lamps I used this additive only to boost the cerium iodide vapor pressure, so its dose is very limited and its orange output is compensated for by the deep green output from thallium, so the overall light color remains properly saturated.