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A ~pricey~ one???


...whadd'do I win? :laugh:
 
Doc, never seen a Par 36 before. (No golf jokes please). So was interested in the fixture it went into
 
A parabolic aluminized reflector lamp (also PAR light, PAR can, or simply PAR) is a type of electric lamp that is widely used in commercial, residential, and transportation illumination. Usage includes locomotive headlamps, aircraft landing lights, and residential and commercial recessed lights ("cans" in the United States). They are identical in principle to sealed beam automobile headlights.

I hope I've impressed you all. (Compliments of a Bing search -couldn't not tell the truth.)


Oh yes also used in stage lighting.
 
Two PAR36 lamps in an airplane wing... one new LED and one old 250w "fog" lamp: :smile:


Click to enlarge...
 
That looks like the Led in the add from Waytek.
Is it that much brighter,Scott?
 
It's a new FAA-approved Teledyne Alphabeam LED lamp...not sure how it compares to the Waytek one (I couldn't use the Waytek one legally but I'm sure people are trying it).

Looking at it you'd <span style="font-style: italic">swear</span> it's brighter than the stock incandescent lamp. The LEDs everyone's using have a piercing pure-white look to them.

I tested the Alphabeam against an almost-new 250w GE PAR36 focused-beam lamp. I used a meter to check the different bulbs and under the same conditions the 250W GE bulb was slightly brighter at the beam-center - not a massive difference, but it <span style="font-style: italic">was brighter</span>.

Part of the difference with all of these bulbs is the was they focus the light. The LED bulbs have multiple LEDs and usually multiple reflectors or fresnel-lens focusers. Depending on their design you'll either have some intense spot lights, an odd shaped pattern with bright light, or a less-intense amount of light over a wide area.

Here's a 250W GE PAR36 "fog" lamp. It's the one on the right side of the picture I posted earlier:
Click to enlarge...


And here's a 250W GE PAR36 "standard" focused-beam lamp (aka tractor headlight):
Click to enlarge...


Here's <span style="font-style: italic">my</span> Teledyne Alphabeam 4-LED lamp. Kind of a weird pattern and a little less bright:
Click to enlarge...


I have a feeling the Waytek one has a little larger light pattern. So far I think the consensus is the LED bulbs are a little less bright but the pure-white light and nice beam-spread (from some of them) make them ok. The BIG advantage is power consumption. On my 28vdc electrical system, the old GE bulbs pulled 9-10amps. The new LED bulb is 1-2amps.

The old bulbs also <span style="font-style: italic">usually</span> started to burn the reflector material after 20-25 hours (in aircraft applications I think they're rated for 25 hours), after that they start to turn black. The LED bulbs pretty much stay bright and new until they die.

These two PAR36 LED bulbs have several hundred hours on them; they've been "on" for over 400 hours but blink on and off at about a 50% duty cycle - still that's a lot of time and they're still like-new.
Click to enlarge...
 
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