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Ushio's EmArc Lamps: A Revolution in HID Technology

There are numerous types of high intensity discharge (HID) light sources available, all of which have different strengths and weaknesses. Light bulb manufacturers have long been pursuing a bulb in which these different types of HID sources can be combined to produce a light bulb that has an excellent life hour rating and great color rendering. Ushio has accomplished this feat with their EmArc series of HID lamps. EmArc lamps are used in a diverse range of areas including, dentistry, projection, curing, microscopy, and medical fiber optics for endoscopy and headlamp lighting. All of these applications require high luminosity, long life hours, and excellent white light: EmArc series lamps satisfy all of these criteria. The Ushio SMR 201/D1 200w EmArc lamp, for example, produces 5,500lm at 200w, and thus has an impressive luminous efficacy of 28lm/w. The SMR 200w has a color temperature of 6,500K, placing it in the color temperature range of a xenon HID lamp. With a 2,000hr life hour rating, the SMR 201 200w has the long life span of a metal halide lamp, but has superior light quality.
The EmArc lamp design also gives its performance unprecedented advantages over other HID lamp technologies. EmArc lamps feature extremely small light arc lengths. The SMR 201 200w has an arc length of only 1.6mm, allowing for exceptional light collection and an efficient and powerful light beam. The parabolic reflector design for the EmArc series allows the bulbs to be increasingly durable and more versatile in its range of applications. 

Ushio’s EmArc lamps, and the SMR 201/D1 200w, are a benchmark in HID lighting technology. They are providing industries as diverse as projection and microscopy with bright white and long lasting light. Check out this great new lamp today!
By Victor Lopez | 20 November, 2014 | bulb, hid, lamps, lights, mr16 | 0 comments | Read more

LED Technology Provides Lighting Solutions on the Street and in the Home

It is widely known in the lighting world that the LED revolution is taking place and incandescent bulbs in the home, office, and theater are quickly falling by the wayside. LEDs are also beginning to emerge as potential replacements for high intensity discharge lamps (HID) as well in industrial, commercial, and outdoor applications. According to Newstreelights.com, the city of Naperville, IL, a western suburb of Chicago, has initiated a pilot LED streetlight program. The Naperville program has replaced one of the town’s blocks with LED street lights that feature a 50,000hr life hour rating compared to the 20,000hr life hour rating of traditional high pressure sodium streetlights. The project’s leaders believe LEDs to be ideal for streetlights because they offer a bright and sharp white light that will give drivers and pedestrians alike good visibility. The street lights are 120w and they replaced 310w HPS streetlights. After initial tests, it was shown that the LED street lights used only 57.6% of the energy the HPS streetlights did. Naperville has almost 11,000 streetlights, if this pilot program proves successful; All of the streetlights may be eventually replaced, thus providing the city with potentially huge energy savings.
This is the second article I have written on LEDs replacing HIDs and other light sources in outdoor and commercial applications. There is a fair amount of nay saying and skepticism, albeit much of it healthy skepticism, surround LEDs. Hopefully the pushes for large scale LED retrofits will encourage individual and homeowners as well to invest in LED bulbs and display products. BulbAmerica offers numerous LED retrofits from LED A-shape bulbs, to PAR38s, and many others. Admittedly the price point of many LED retrofit bulbs are high, but one should factor in the long term energy savings that come with LED lighting’s efficient performance. Furthermore, LED technology remains still in its infancy, so expect to prices to come further and further down in the future.

BulbAmerica has an amazing range of LED products to choose from at the best prices around. If you have any questions do not hesitate to leave a it or a comment on our blog or Facebook. Also, don’t be afraid to call (888)505-2111.
By Victor Lopez | 20 November, 2014 | hid, lamps, led, lights | 0 comments | Read more

GE's Lucalox Horticultrual Lamps Revolutionize Greenhouse Lighting

By BulbAmerica Editor

With the green revolution taking place in lighting, people are looking for long lasting, more efficient lighting options in all applications. One area where a big push for greener lighting has occurred is in horticultural lighting. GE’s line of Lucalox XOPSL and XO HID horticultural lamps are an excellent and long lasting option for greenhouse lighting. The Lucalox lamps are extremely long lasting, depending on their wattage they can last anywhere between 16,000hrs and 28,5000hrs. GE’s Lucalox lamps are also powerful, producing between 53,675 mean lumens and 106,400 depending on which wattage lamp you choose. The Lucalox series lamps’ long lasting performance and high light output make them equivalent to about five 125w fluorescent lamps or 42 40w four-foot fluorescent lamps, making these HID horticultural lamps a great option for retrofitting your greenhouse with more effective lighting. These lamps emit a light 2,100K reddish light that is ideal for triggering the hormones in plants that make them flower.

GE’s Lucalux horticultural lamps can last an extremely long time, but you must take certain measures to ensure that they operate correctly and otimally. First, try to turn your Lucalox lamps on and off as little as possible; turning it off and then putting it through its re-ignition process will shorten the lamp’s lamp life. Second, make sure that the environment is vibration free, vibration can harm the lamp’s fragile components. Third, and this is true will all lamps requiring ballasts, make sure that the ballast you are using is compatible with Lucalox lamps.

GE’s Lucalox 400w, 600w, and 750w lamps are the new standard in horticultural lighting and have been lauded for their long lasting light and luminous efficacy. BulbAmerica stocks the full Lucalox line as well as other GE lighting products, so be sure to check them out. As usual, leave a question or comment on our blog or Facebook, or call us at 1-877-622-0897 with any further inquiries.
By Victor Lopez | 18 November, 2014 | bulbs, hid, lights | 0 comments | Read more

The MSD250: The Best Lamp for Entertainment Lighting

By BulbAmerica Editor

The MSD250 is one of the most widely trusted lamps in theatre, studio, concert, and projection lighting. The MSD250 is a single ended metal halide high intensity discharge (HID) lamp with a GY9.5 two-pin prefocus base. The lamp’s 5mm arc produces a powerful 180,000 lumens and has an impressive life hour rating of 3,000 hours. The MSD250 has proven a popular choice by manufacturers of intelligent lighting fixtures, or automated moving heads, including American DJ, Elation Professional, and others.

Though the Philips’ MSD Broadway series is the most widely recognized line of lamp products like it. Manufacturers including Osram (HSD series) and Platinum, and Silver offer alternative lamps to the Philips MSD250 Broadway that are similar in performance and light characteristics to the MSD250. Platinum and ilver’s MSD250 replacement bulbs have near identical performance to the Philips MSD, but are priced far more reasonably, making them affordable to more venues. Platinum’s MSD replacement is listed at $99.99 and Silver’s is listed at $77.50, compared to Philips MSD250’s price $124.02. We have the entire MSD Broadway lamp line as well as a comprehensive inventory of MSD replacement bulbs. Check it out!
By Victor Lopez | 18 November, 2014 | bulbs, hid, lights, msd | 0 comments | Read more

Xenon Bulbs: A Powerful Lighting Option

With a patient’s life on the line, a surgeon needs a light source he or she can count on. Xenon bulbs are a popular choice among doctors, surgeons, and others in the scientific field due to their excellent color rendering and brightness. The HID xenon light bulbs come in a wide range of wattages (51W-500W) and an equally wide range of lumen output (1,000lm to 13,000lm). Xenon high intensity discharge bulbs work like all other HID bulbs, by sending electrical current through the gas filled enveloped and thus forming an arc of light. In a xenon bulb, the glass envelope is filled with xenon gas. Though xenon bulbs are not the most efficient, they are one of the few bulbs capable of high lumen output while maintaining cool color temperature. Due to their small arc, xenon bulbs offer superior beam control. Using xenon bulbs you can focus the Xenon bulb effectively, making it ideal for microscope use and surgical lighting. Ushio’s VAC line of HID ceramic xenon lamps is particularly exciting. The VAC lamps’ rated life of 1,200 hours coupled with its 6,000lm output make it powerful and a step forward in xenon lighting technology. In addition to surgical and medical applications, ceramic xenon lights can be used in video/data projection and fiber-optic illumination. Xenon light bulbs were, in fact, were first used for film projection and are today still the most popular choice for projector lighting in theaters and movie houses.

The applications of xenon lighting continue to expand. Xenon bulbs are quickly becoming the bulb of choice for automobile headlights and home/office task lighting. Xenon lighting technology is still in its developmental phase but promises to be an even more powerful lighting option in the future.
By Victor Lopez | 12 November, 2014 | automotive, bulbs, hid, lights | 0 comments | Read more

HID Bulbs: More Than Just a Bright Idea

A Purdue University land-use scientist found in 2007 that there are likely more parking spaces in the United States than cars. The scientist found that parking lots in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin amounted to about 490 square miles. Parking lots pose numerous environmental problems. One of the most important is how to light these often large lots efficiently for hours on end every day of the year. Fortunately, there seems to be an environmentally friendly solution: high intensity discharge (HID) light bulbs. 

HID bulbs generate light by discharging electricity from a filament into a gas filled envelope, thus producing light. There are several types of HID bulbs including metal halide bulbs, low/high pressure sodium vapor bulbs, mercury vapor, xenon short arc bulbs, and others. HID bulbs have a high degree of luminous efficacy (a high proportion of luminous flux to wattage) and therefore produce a significant amount of visible light and little heat.HID lights produce so much light in fact, that it is no surprise that they are the bulb of choice for growing plants in indoor gardens.

Metal halide bulbs are particularly popular. With a lifespan of 15,000-20,000+ hours, (nearly 20X the lifespan of an incandescent bulb) and 65-115 lumens per watt the metal halide bulb is among the most efficient. What makes metal halide bulbs the most versatile of the HID bulbs is their 65-90 color rendering index (CRI) score, bringing the metal halide close to the 100 CRI rating of sunlight and close to ‘true’ color. High pressure sodium bulbs, for example, have a CRI score of 20-25, casting whatever the bulb illuminates in a yellow glow. This severely limits the applications of high pressure sodium bulbs. Because metal halides are close to a CRI of 100, they can be used in areas where accurate color is important like inside a kitchen or supermarket. For a bulb that can fill a large place with lots of light efficiently, the HID bulb is a great choice. The luminosity and true color also make the metal halide bulb a popular choice in film and photography where light and color must be rendered accurately. The different types of HID bulbs and the types of fixtures to which they are configured make it a versatile and economic option.

HIDs are versatile and efficient: use them in your kitchen, parking lot, movie set, or greenhouse and you will find that your lighting and energy needs are met.
By Victor Lopez | 12 November, 2014 | bulbs, hid, lights | 0 comments | Read more
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