multiple bulbs

[bitslice]

One of our DIY stores sells a rather large spotlight for £29, it is about 12" in diameter with a 12v lead acid battery.

I was thinking of replacing the stock halogen bulb with a cheapy HID kit from dealextreme.
Looking at the base of the reflector I believe there might actually be room to squeeze in a couple of H1 HID bulbs (each with it's own ballast of course)

Would having multiple bulbs mess up the reflected image, as technically none of them would be at the focal point?
Would a diffuser help mitigate this effect?


I also considered that the initial ignition voltage of the bulbs might interfere with each others circuitry, so I thought perhaps a thin sheet of mica between each bulb would help insulate them (from both heat and voltage)

 

[bitslice]

nobody have any comments?

meanwhile have sourced some HID's from ebay so I'll have some hardware to play with soon.

also considering the points made in another thread about the 'point of light' needing to be as small as possible, so as to be efficient in a parabolic reflector.
For their design they removed the outer shell of the bulb to reduce refraction, in my case it might allow a closer grouping of light sources.


IIRC some guy tried this before for a light mounted on his 4x4, I can't find the youtube video of it now but I thought at the time it wasn't quite as bright as I was expecting