Car headlights as planted tank lights

S

Sumpin'fishy

Humble Disciple of Jesus Christ
Oct 16, 2002
673
0
0
50
Savannah, GA
I had a strange idea as I was driving to work a few days ago, and had to squint when a certain car passed me going the other direction. The car had the new headlights that appear more bluish-white than yellow-white. Man those new lights are bright! It seems to me that they would make ideal aquarium lamps for larger hoods.

They put out plenty of light (as we all know), and are completely water-proof. It seems like the newer lights are using a decent Kelvin in the bulbs, which appears to be somewhere between 6500K and maybe 10,000K (to the best of my vision). I believe they run off a standard 12 volt current which is what car batteries are (or even 14 volt). I don't see why a simple 12 or 15 volt power supply can't operate these very well. I don't think they give off any real heat, either! Don't know what kind of lights they use, but just throwing around and idea!

Any other insight from AC?
 
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It sounds like an interesting idea BUT....

I don't think we can acurately determine spectrum temperature with our eyes so you'd need to research it out.

The lights are DC aren't they? Would you use some type of transformer? A battery would go dead in one day.

I think it might be cheeper in the long run to buy some MH, ballasts, fitting, ect. from some place like hellolights and wire them yourself.
 
I understand the idea, but 12 volts killed it...
 
Yes, what does "twelve volts killed it" mean?

You would definately need a AC to DC converter, which is easy to get and fairly cheap, as is the power supply. The spectrum, which I guessed at, is definately not and exact estimate. I know we can't determine Kelvin values with our eyes, but plants don't really need an exact Kelvin light to grow, and even thrive, The intensity is much more important than anything else. You can (and many people do) grow plants well under cool white bulbs which are your plain old, average, light bulb. They are simply less efficient than the other light sources we use. 12 DCV seems pretty good to me considering the amount of light given out on a car headlamp. The reason to choose the blue-ish light over the yellowish lamp is more for asthetics than anything. They also seem much brighter. I don't squint at normal headlights unless they use their brights, but these blue-ish ones give me a much harder time! I'm almost possitive they emit more LUX. It could be because they use a blue light which penetrates water better, and maybe air also. That's why reef aquariums use 10K and 20K Kelvin bulbs. More light hits the bottom. I know that corals respond better to those lights too, but it's because that's the majority of light that gets to them in nature.
 
the blueish really bright white ones are xenons/HID, they should work since they are bright and even its name is high intensity discharge but they are really expensive thats why even on bmws, mercedes they aren't standard equipment. so your better off getting some powercompacts or something like that. if you go with normal car headlights they will be really hot. i just use shoplights and get some of the highest K bulbs that will fit that way i can get a 4 foot light 2 bulbs for about 30 dollars.
 
Originally posted by Sumpin'fishy
You would definately need a AC to DC converter, which is easy to get and fairly cheap, as is the power supply. The spectrum, which I guessed at, is definately not and exact ...
Click to expand...
OH..
I never used an AC/DC converter.. Unless you count the small battery charger types for cell phones, etc..
I was thinking the 12 volt battery and charger route..
 
ooops, ok...

I meant, I never actually used a "stand alone" AC to DC converter to power car headlights in my home. Built-in transformers don't count.. LOL
 
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