HID lumen maintainence?

[BatteryCharger]

The original 35w bulb in my X990 has enough hours on it to kill 3 NiMh packs. (at roughly an hour per battery, 300 charges till death, that's probably around 900 or so hours on the bulb)

It still works, but I'm wondering what the lumen maintainence is like in bulbs like these? I understand with BIG metal halide lights, you only have roughly half the light output at the end of the bulb life even though it still works.

How do the smaller HID bulbs compare? Is mine putting out less lumens than I started with? What is the average lifetime hours for a bulb like this?

 

[AEHaas]

Many HID lamps have reverse lumen curves. They actually increase the output during the first half of their life, peak at about 50 percent longevity then slowly diminish until their death.

It may be that your light is at it's brightest point in life right now. This can be degraded if the light was turned on and off too often without getting fully warmed up. I personally like to run a lamp for 5 minutes, minimum, if turned on at all.

Ken at Polarion has turned lights on and off without regard to any protocols yet his lights seem to run forever at the highest of intensities. He told me that he has replaced customer's light fixtures only 3 times over the years. This seems realistic to me.

aehaas

 

[Patriot]

What is the average lifetime hours for a bulb like this?

Around 2000-3000 hours. Degradation isn't really a huge issue for these bulbs.

 

[BatteryCharger]

Huh. I guess I'll wait until next time I have to rebuild the battery packs to replace it. :laughing: I do (did) usually run it for an hour + at a time, for two hours a day almost every day for a year.

I knew there was a break in period for the bulb but I thought it was just a hand full of hours....