Heat Lamp/High Wattage Bulb Safety

shepherdgirl

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Dec 7, 2015
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I am your basic desert lizard - I love red light and would like to get more red light exposure, but I am concerned about using lamps that pull a lot of heat and want to use them safely. If anyone has safety tips, thought it would make sense to collect them in a thread.
I found this article on brooder lamp safety in chicken coops - some of it is relevant for indoor lamp safety too:
Avoid Heat Lamp Fires

Also an article on how close to have heat lamps: "Your eyes are very susceptible to high-intensity short-wave infrared radiation as well. Long-term exposure to infrared radiation can permanently damage the eyes."
Infrared heat lamps | Go Ask Alice!

I also saw articles about how 300w halogen torchiere lights could reach a thousand degrees Fahrenheit!
Lamp guards and shatterproof bulbs seem like a good idea to me...
How do you keep your setup safe?
 

biggirlkisss

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i dont like halogens because of the production of uvb and uva yes the safety glass blocks it but it lowers with time. Stick with incandescents. You can get tilt switches from ebay that will turn off if it falls. You can also look at warm white led chips but your looking at a lot more money and you want a chip with a decent cri aka color rendering index or the red and orange isnt as rich.
 
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shepherdgirl

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Thanks @biggirlkisss
I mentioned the halogen article just because these were 300 watt lamps, and a lot of the bulbs we are using are 2-300 watts too, so I would think they could also get to very high temperatures. Will look into tilt switches. I heard that LEDs have some low-wavelength spiking, plus they're pricey, so planning on using incandescents for now.
 

Sucrates

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Don't put anything in front of them, always turn them off if you're not using them. They can start a fire pretty quickly if they fall over. Don't start into them.
 

biggirlkisss

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you would need to when buying the led chip look at the spec sheet that shows the wavelength to see how much red and orange there is compared to blue. That is get as low kevlin color as you can aka color temperature. Ya leds are pricy and you need skill to install them plus power supply but some can be 6 times less power then incandescent. Incandescent have a cri close to 100 not sure exactly the cri but some leds are 70-85 which isn't as good too. you need to keep that in mind because the red and orange aren't as rich that may be a factor to in terms of benefit.
 
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shepherdgirl

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Thanks for the good advice @Sucrates !

@biggirlkisss - ya they use less power, but my understanding is that
they are cutting out a lot of the red and infrared light. Otoh maybe that's good - maybe it makes sense to have leds in particular healing frequencies and skip the full red spectrum of the heat lamps - fewer problems with overheating, plus use less power. My inner lizard likes the heat lamp tho!
 

biggirlkisss

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shepherdgirl you need to look at the spec sheet to see the wavelengths to confirm if it has less red and orange. Some are more and less then others. Yes led dont produce infared making them produce less heat but they do produce heat inside the chip and heatsink. A 200 watt is still going to be quite hot.
 

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