# How bright is a 400 watt metal halide?



## BatteryCharger (May 9, 2004)

I want to play a little trick on a friend of mine. Can anyone tell me how bright a 400 watt metal halide light would be? Maybe compared to one of those 500 watt halogen work lights? If one was set in the middle of a small room, would it be completely blinding? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


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## iddibhai (May 9, 2004)

400w metal halide? heck of a lot brighter than 500w halogen i'd venture. to use automotive headlamps as analogy:a 60w-ish halogen puts out a bit over 1000 lumens, at best high 1000s, and a 35w metal halide puts up a bit over 3000 lumens.

just googled--figure almost 40,000 lumens initially, and down with age.


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## cheesehead (May 9, 2004)

Like a street lamp, stupid bright.


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## PhotonWrangler (May 9, 2004)

[ QUOTE ]
*BatteryCharger said:*
I want to play a little trick on a friend of mine. Can anyone tell me how bright a 400 watt metal halide light would be? Maybe compared to one of those 500 watt halogen work lights? If one was set in the middle of a small room, would it be completely blinding? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif 

[/ QUOTE ]

It would be impossible to look at directly. I modd'ed a 175w mercury vapor fixture with a similar wattage MH and appropriate ballast, and the lamp was bright enough (after warmup) that it could not be looked at directly.

However it also generated a lot of heat and a fair amount of buzzing, and the lamps are quite fragile! If someone bumped that lamp while it was in operation, that could result in hot glass shards flying everywhere at high speed. Not conducive to remaining alive.

If you must do this, *please* make sure that the lamp is enclosed in a suitable fixture.


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## PhotonWrangler (May 9, 2004)

[ QUOTE ]
*BatteryCharger said:*
I want to play a little trick on a friend of mine. Can anyone tell me how bright a 400 watt metal halide light would be? Maybe compared to one of those 500 watt halogen work lights? If one was set in the middle of a small room, would it be completely blinding? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif 

[/ QUOTE ]

It would be impossible to look at directly. I modd'ed a 175w mercury vapor fixture with a similar wattage MH and appropriate ballast, and the lamp was bright enough (after warmup) that it could not be looked at directly.

However it also generated a lot of heat and a fair amount of buzzing, and the lamps are quite fragile! If someone bumped that lamp while it was in operation, that could result in hot glass shards flying everywhere at high speed. Not conducive to remaining alive.

If you must do this, *please* make sure that the lamp is enclosed in a suitable fixture.


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## Draco_Americanus (May 9, 2004)

I did this mod with a swing arm light. it's mounted high and usaly aimed at the celing. I need to find a globe for it as I don't wish to be picking hot quartz from my flesh.

I did not know they where that sensitive when moved, I do plan of being more carfull now! thanks


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## mattheww50 (May 9, 2004)

You might get 20 lumens per watt our of a Halogen, figure on close to 100 lumens per watt out of a 400 watt HID lamp.


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## Nerd (May 9, 2004)

That's near half a million lumens out from that thing! Cool!


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## PhotonWrangler (May 9, 2004)

[ QUOTE ]
*Draco_Americanus said:*
I did this mod with a swing arm light. it's mounted high and usaly aimed at the celing. I need to find a globe for it as I don't wish to be picking hot quartz from my flesh.

I did not know they where that sensitive when moved, I do plan of being more carfull now! thanks 

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't mean to imply that they're that that sensitive to movement; it's just that if something or somebody bumps into the unprotected lamp when it's running, the result could be an E.R. visit from the hot shards of flying glass. I think I remember reading somewhere that the arc itself is hotter than the sun. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif


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## MikeF (May 9, 2004)

I use a 400watt K5600 Joker-Bug HMI on a daily basis at work. In the early morning times(before sunrise), I use it to light up the background behind my Reporter, such as small little things like the Pepsi Center (CO Avalanche, Denver Nuggets), or Invesco Field at Mile High (Denver Broncos) and I use much lower output fixture(s), usually color corrected to daylight for the reporter. During the 11:00am show, I use the Joker-Bug to fill facial shadows during full daylight. The Joker is about 6 feet from the Reporter to reduce facial shadows, again in direct daylight. The photometrics for the 400watt is here. They also make fixtures from 200 watt to 1,200 watt.
These things are very very bright, very consistent, and very reliable.


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## S4MadMan (May 13, 2004)

Should be good for about 40,000 lumens give or take a few thousand. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


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## Stefan (May 13, 2004)

I've never actually seen one of these, but I'd imagine the pain would be comparible with staring directly into the sun, which is a BAD thing to do.


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## NikolaTesla (May 14, 2004)

A friend of mine had a 1000 watt metal halide he mount in his basement. It did 2 interesting things.
1) we actually could get a sun tan from it. could NOT look at it though. to bright.

2)It made his special plants grow very well thru winter.

Darn electric bill went up quite a bit though. A 400 & 1000 are good bit brighter than the average street light. We installed a good number of the 400s on gymnasium and factory ceilings and they are plenty bright. Much more than a flashlight or street light.

NikolaTesla


An Arc lamp is the Spark that takes away the Dark--HID Forever!
Recent additions to My Lights: *** http://www.tjtech.org/gallery/NikolaTesla/Dscn3236


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## Willmore (May 17, 2004)

I have a 400W MH HID bulb/fixture in my garage attic--until I find a better place for it. ( I was putting in some insulation up there when it arrived and I needed *some* light. Woah...) Let's say that it lights up my 12x25' attic almost like daylight. You cannot look at the bulb directly. With some kind of diffuser, it might be liveable. I have yet to find a good solid use for the light. Unlike some here, I don't have 'special agricultural' uses for it--unless you could the 10 gallon fish tank full of guppies, but it's a little much for them.


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## Stickles01 (May 20, 2004)

A friend of mine used her 400W MH to grow her plants during the winter in the front room of her house. Mind you, the front room faced the street (10ft away in busy downtown), and would catch the attention of anyone within eyeshot of the window!!

What kind of prank are you considering? If you are thinking of turning the light on as soon as he enters the room then it won't work, the like takes about 5 to 10 minutes to warm up to full brightness. And if you have it on before he walks in the room he'll be able to see all the light literally "leaking" out from the cracks in the door. That was what amazed me the most is the light that leaked out from every single crack...now that's a light!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif


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