Recommendations for high quality long-lived MR-16 halogen 12v builbs

[AlexOZ]

So I'm getting ready to install a track lighting system at the apex of a cathedral-ceiling sloped living room with a maximum height of about 13 ft. There's a horizontal beam going across the apex right below the roof and I can easily fit a track up there with 8-10 heads (granted, wiring is going to be a nightmare, but that's a different topic).

The plan is to have 4-5 50 watt flood to wide flood halogen MR16 bulbs and 4-5 lower power accent spots pointed at different things in the room. It's going to be a total nightmare to change the bulbs in the future so I'm trying to identify the longest lived bulbs. LEDs, in my opinion, have not come of age yet and will look terrible in here. I'm pretty much resigned to low voltage halogen MR16's.

I was ready to buy some osram decostar titan/titan IRCs with a ~ 4000-5,000 hour lifetime. I'm pretty confident about osram products, having had a lot of experience with them over the years with microscope lights. However I just dropped by a local lighting wholesaler and the guy there mentioned halogen mr16's from Ushio, rated at 10,000 hours.

I've never heard of this company to so I did a bit of reading online and found that they've also recently (2007) released an 18,000 hour MR-16 halogen, which I find hard to believe. Has anyone had experience with this company? Because if I can get 10-18k hours on a bulb with some nice quality light (which I've come to assume is a given for halogen mr16's) then I'm sold.

Hopefully someone has used their products before and can give me an idea of whether or not they're any good. Thanks!

 

[blasterman]

LEDs, in my opinion, have not come of age yet and will look terrible in here

The biggest problem with LEDs is you need a lot of them to match the raw lumens of a standard 50watt MR-16 Halogen. Those LED MR-16 retrofits with 3 Crees in them are seriously underpowered compared to 50watt MR-16, and they have unpredicatable life-spans.

IMHO - You need at least an MC-E driven hard enough to need a heat sink the size of a softball to keep up.

Colorwise, unless you're a dork for high CRI, I've found most people prefer the color of warm white Crees over 50watt halogen because the LEDs (if you get the right bin) lack the excessive yellow/green in halogen and won't turn orange at low light levels. So, in that respect I'll defend LEDs.

Ushio has a good rep in my book, but there is little information on the 18k hour ones you refer to, although a lot of places have them in stock for about $10.00. My concern with them isn't really lifespan, but how much they fade over their reputed long life span. For some people it doesn't really matter. Saves climbing a ladder though, that's for sure. Even 10k hours is rare for a halogen.

 

[AlexOZ]

So I take it nobody else has had any experiences with Ushio MR16's? Or at least Ushio in general compared with some of the other big names.

The ones I'm looking at include the 10k model: http://www.ushio.com/products/generallighting/hr-ultraline.htm

and the 18k model http://www.ushio.com/products/generallighting/hr-ultralinetitan.htm

Seems too good to be true (but boy do I hope it's true).

 

[brickbat]

I took a look at those, too. Basically it looks like they're trading efficiency for life. Their standard 5000 hour 50W Dichroic 60 degree flood produces 79 foot-candles at 1 meter. Their Ultraline 18000 hour Titan 50W 60 degree flood produces 56 fc at 1m.

 

[Alan B]

I took a look at those, too. Basically it looks like they're trading efficiency for life. Their standard 5000 hour 50W Dichroic 60 degree flood produces 79 foot-candles at 1 meter. Their Ultraline 18000 hour Titan 50W 60 degree flood produces 56 fc at 1m.

That's usually the story with filaments. Temperature determines life and output. Soft start can really help, and some form of regulation to get the right voltage. Just a little higher and the life goes way down. A bit lower and the life goes up considerably. Too much lower and the halogen process may stop and life goes down again, though by then it may be so long as to not matter. When the halogen process fails the bulbs darken rather than burn out, so the filament is okay but the light doesn't get out very well.

 

[AlexOZ]

I was wondering whether or not the lifetime to brightness issue would come to play here. Honestly though, for my particular application I think it's a fair tradeoff. Even with the lower output I think I can get away with 4 x 50 wide to regular flood watt 18k bulbs for background lighting and 4-6 more narrow flood to spot 50 watt bulbs for accent lighting.

I'm testing one of their 10k-hr 50 watt floods right now, seems like a pleasing light.

 

[ponygt65]

So I take it nobody else has had any experiences with Ushio MR16's? Or at least Ushio in general compared with some of the other big names.

The ones I'm looking at include the 10k model: http://www.ushio.com/products/generallighting/hr-ultraline.htm

and the 18k model http://www.ushio.com/products/generallighting/hr-ultralinetitan.htm

Seems too good to be true (but boy do I hope it's true).

The company I work for is an Ushio Distributor. You'd be hard pressed to match the quality to price in regards to them. They made their name with Stage and Studio lighting. I would take Ushio over OSI or G-E a fair amount of the time. So, yes, go for it.

That's usually the story with filaments. Temperature determines life and output. Soft start can really help, and some form of regulation to get the right voltage. Just a little higher and the life goes way down. A bit lower and the life goes up considerably. Too much lower and the halogen process may stop and life goes down again, though by then it may be so long as to not matter. When the halogen process fails the bulbs darken rather than burn out, so the filament is okay but the light doesn't get out very well.

Correct. It's the same with 120v vs. 130v rated incand and halogens. You trade lumens for life. It's the name of the trade.

Just like with Fluorescents you'll trade lumens for CRI and Kelvin.