300Watt 36" Halogen Shop Light

A report I found from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory presents results of measuring a household halogen light, and they calculated efficacies of 10-19 lumens per watt. Compare that to 88-105 lm/W for various modern fluorescent technologies, and you see that flourescents are 5 - 10 times more efficient. That 300 watt halogen light makes about the same amount of light as a 30-60 watt flourescent fixture.

The difference in electrical power goes into heat. Halogens are notoriously hot, and are the source of many fires every year. On the plus side, they are inexpensive, but unless your tank can remain at a safe temperature despite the heat input, you'll need to keep it away. If you do that, the light intensity in the tank diminishes.

I assume you're asking about use to illuminate a tank.

As an example, I quickly looked at aquarium lights and found this Coralife T5 fixture with a total of 42W for $45 from Big Al's. It should put out a similar amount of light, burn 1/7 the electricity, doesn't cost that terribly much more, and doesn't heat up your aquarium and house as much. Also, if you have plants or marine invertebrates, the fluorescents are colored to provide them the light they need and the halogen work lamp is not designed to ensure this. If I look around a little, I might find something with comparable light output for less money.
 
I agree, halogens and incandescents are very inefficient, and are not the correct color spectrum.
 
i thought flourescents were 40W watts each & that hood has 2,, is it less because they're only 3 feet long of something, you said 42W total. if that was a four foot light,would it not be 80 watts 2 /40w's? please clairify becuase that striplight looks smaller(thinner) & nicer than my single bulb hood thats getting a bend in it .I gotta price the four footers ,I bet they are 100 bucks canadian.assuming those are american prices.
 
Last edited:
The description of the 36" fixture I referenced said that the bulbs are 21W each. Within a certain technology (T5, T5HO, T8, etc.) the maximum power of the bulb is typically proportional to its length. For example, this 48" T5 fixture has 28W bulbs. Here is a 36" fixture with 39W bulbs, but they are T5 high output (HO) bulbs. T5 and T5 HO are different technologies.
 
Most definitely useless for growing plants and such, and from my experience puts out a pretty unappetizing yellow color. Though i hear that Halogen gives a ripple effect similar to that of MH.
 
The only reason why halogen produces a "ripple effect" or "shimmer lines" like MH is because they are both single point sources of light like the sun. Stick an incandescent bulb or an LED over your tank and you'll get the same thing to varying degrees.

I agree: halogens are terribly inefficient, generate too much heat and are the wrong spectrum.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom