Re: AQUASUN VHO QUESTION

["Wayne Jones" <waj at mnsi_net>]

Micah wrote:

Second time posting to this mailing list.

Just purchased some URI AQUASUN VHO 160W  72" bulbs from MOPS online (
http://www.mops.on.ca/ ).  Great site by the way (Canadian).
Anyhow, I can't dig up much info on these bulbs and I've even visited
the URI website - to no avail - but couldn't find answers to a few of my
key questions:
These particular bulbs operate at 10,000 Kelvin or "correlated color
temperature".
Anyone have any idea of:

What is the CRI of these bulbs?

What kind of lumen output or luminous flux?  Lumen maintenance?

I reply:

I don't know the answer to any of these questions as URI doesn't seem to
publish these specs. so I have to guess. VHO lamps are less efficient
than than NO lamps. It is the nature of the beast. Probably about 65
lumens per watt. If those are the kind of lamps with the internal
reflectors then those lamps will be just as good as NO lamps when this
is taken into account. Lumen maintainance with VHO lamps is generally
poor but I understand that URIs are triphosphor lamps and as such
probably last longer than other VHOs. If they are triphosphor lamps the
CRI might be in the low 80s.

Frankly I wouldn't buy those lamps just because they don't publish any
important data on the lamp. It pisses me off. It makes it impossible to
evaluate your purchase. Does the internal reflector shorten the lamp
life? Why don't they publish lumen maintainance data? Is it because it's
really bad? That's the assumption I make. One thing I do know is the
price of those lamps is not low and I would think for that price they
could give you at least a little hard data. The only thing they tell you
is that it's 10,000K which ironically is pretty much completely
meaningless with that type of lamp.

Wayne