I would like to build an overhead surgical light vs retrofit an existing incandescent one. These are the types that are used in the OR and are usually two or three in number. The older lights were incandescent or HID, hot and heavy. Sure enough, LED's have taken over and now they the way to go.
Here is an example:
http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v2/418706647/LED_operation_lamp_surgical_light_with_CE.jpg
Much of the expense is the boom and the engineering that goes into the hanging lamp as the old ones were very heavy and required special ceiling mounting. I am going to take an older existing lamp, use the power available in the device (24VAC, 150 W) to power the retrofit. The details of design will depend on the led units I choose. I plan to cut a round plate that approximates the size of the face of the original fixture and mount spot led units on the plate with the appropriate angle to converge at an operating site a few feet away. No doubt it won't be as precise as an existing LED surgical light, but won't cost $8000 either. These new surgical lights use either a clear plastic lens or a reflector like a flashlight or a reflector like a car headlight (LED backwards for more focus) to achieve a focus.
The specs on LED surgical lights is typically 50,000 to 100,000 lux per lamp. These lamps generally cover about one square foot or less of operating area. This area is roughly a tenth of a square meter, which means that there must be around 5,000 to 10,000 lumens of light from the combined LEDs on the lamp.
So with this information:
need 10,000 lumens from multiple 'focused' led units over a round area of about 3 square feet, focused at a 1 ft square area a few feet away.
I need to choose these LED units. This first thing that I came across was the 12V MR16 LED halogen replacement unit. These units are small, cheap and focused via reflector and there are something like 15,000 of them on ebay and are touted as having 350 to 550 lumens at 4 to 9 watts or so depending on what Chinese seller you choose. The size, wattage, voltage requirement and light output are compatible with the project so I am leaning toward ordering a dozen or so and building a trial model. So I really have a few questions:
1) What do you think about MR16 LED unit vs another standard LED unit (Cheap LED bike lights, another LED fixture, some kind of flashlight head, etc) in an array for this purpose?
2) If I choose the 12V LED MR16, any thoughts on a good source? There are a million of them out there from $2 to $6 with about the same specs. There are 3x1 watt, 3x3 watt, 5x3 watt, etc. Many are sold in lots of 10.
3) Any other general comments about this project?
Thanks for reading . . .
Here is an example:
http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v2/418706647/LED_operation_lamp_surgical_light_with_CE.jpg
Much of the expense is the boom and the engineering that goes into the hanging lamp as the old ones were very heavy and required special ceiling mounting. I am going to take an older existing lamp, use the power available in the device (24VAC, 150 W) to power the retrofit. The details of design will depend on the led units I choose. I plan to cut a round plate that approximates the size of the face of the original fixture and mount spot led units on the plate with the appropriate angle to converge at an operating site a few feet away. No doubt it won't be as precise as an existing LED surgical light, but won't cost $8000 either. These new surgical lights use either a clear plastic lens or a reflector like a flashlight or a reflector like a car headlight (LED backwards for more focus) to achieve a focus.
The specs on LED surgical lights is typically 50,000 to 100,000 lux per lamp. These lamps generally cover about one square foot or less of operating area. This area is roughly a tenth of a square meter, which means that there must be around 5,000 to 10,000 lumens of light from the combined LEDs on the lamp.
So with this information:
need 10,000 lumens from multiple 'focused' led units over a round area of about 3 square feet, focused at a 1 ft square area a few feet away.
I need to choose these LED units. This first thing that I came across was the 12V MR16 LED halogen replacement unit. These units are small, cheap and focused via reflector and there are something like 15,000 of them on ebay and are touted as having 350 to 550 lumens at 4 to 9 watts or so depending on what Chinese seller you choose. The size, wattage, voltage requirement and light output are compatible with the project so I am leaning toward ordering a dozen or so and building a trial model. So I really have a few questions:
1) What do you think about MR16 LED unit vs another standard LED unit (Cheap LED bike lights, another LED fixture, some kind of flashlight head, etc) in an array for this purpose?
2) If I choose the 12V LED MR16, any thoughts on a good source? There are a million of them out there from $2 to $6 with about the same specs. There are 3x1 watt, 3x3 watt, 5x3 watt, etc. Many are sold in lots of 10.
3) Any other general comments about this project?
Thanks for reading . . .