Difference between revisions of "Osram HQI-E"

Generally, metal hallide lamps fare quite poorly in terms of reliability but some lamps have an outright poor performance. The aggressiveness of metal hallides and their reliance on a specific pressure and temperature requirement for vaporization and light output with a specific output, means that lamp to lamp colour shifts are quite noticeable. Aging amplifies the colour drift and light output differences. As the lamp is very compact and has high temperature hot-spots means that fixtures are noticeably degraded and especially affects gaskets and the front frame of the reflector housing. This means that waterproofing is frequently degraded and lamps are rarely suited to operate outdoors unless old fixtures are carefully maintained.

The lamps themselves are quite short living, some having only a 6000 hour lifetime while others have double this value. This wide discrepancy makes some lamps useless as they are already quite rare and they may be still expensive to purchase as new. Electronic gears were available but quite rarely used due to their much higher price, although lamps service lamp may be increased and the hot restart or restrike of lapms in case of power outages or starts and stops seriously improves versatility. On the other side, electronic gears are affected much quicker than conventional gears so their useful life may be already halved due to aging components, mandating some future repairs or replacements. Due to large starting voltages special care should be taken for proper insulation and wiring of the lamp and gear.