Health issues associated with Metal Halide?

I'm in the process of assembling my own little metal halide setup. I'm wondering if there are any associated health risks (eyes, skin) with using that type of light for prolong amounts of time.

If someone here could shine a light on this subject that would be perfect.

Cheers,
Nick

 

No, all bulbs sold for and provided with the consumer and commercial units should be coated to prevent UV wavelength emissions or reduced to an insignificant level.
So you've nothing to be concerned about, other than getting ones with a 6500ºK CTO (colour temperature output). Most are 4000ºK, of those brands that include a bulb with the unit.

A single 150w should be almost as bright as a pair of 500w halogens, and yes, it does still get hot, so watch your fingers.
Also be aware that as it is heavier (due to the enclosed ballast to strike the arc), you should maintain as wide a base as possible, or weigh the stand down with a 5kg bag of sand or lead shot.
Otherwise, with it being top-heavy, a bit of a knock could see it topple relatively easily, and with disastrous consequences to the vehicle, and/or the unit itself.

 

Hey thanks so much for that informative reply.

It's just what I wanted to hear!

 

Actually it depends on the bulb, Double ended bulbs are not protected,you'll need a UV screen/glass for those.
Single ended MH's are UV protected.

 

Nikku and PJS, care to share some links to the parts, etc required for one of these setups?

 

sure carn.

I'm considering Floodlights - ProLighting.com

That particular housing and doing some wiring work as well as probably fabricating my own base.

The specs i'm looking for is 175w and about 4000k.

 

- Is it possible to buy these online anywhere in the UK? I know that TPCL sell a 150w MH, but it could be some china made whatever that just got a price bump. I can find weather sealed Crompton Lightning unit for around the same price as the TPCL one here in Denmark, but generally it's cheaper to buy online from the UK.

And why do we need the ones with 6500ºK output? The Crompton ones are 4200ºK or 3000ºK.


Kind regards,

Ebbe

 

TPCL's is the one I have, but the UK brand that they use, is now discontinued.
I'll be looking into this very shortly, to see what can be done about continued supply, since it's the best looking of it's type.

As for 6500ºK - nicer light as far as spending many hours under in the absence of natural daylight.
Also handy to see possible colour imperfection if the car's been resprayed - but most decent repairers should have either a 3M Sun Gun to view the chip cards beside the car's own paint, or wheel it out into daylight, so as to make sure they have the right colour code made up.

Otherwise, the standard white is fine.

 

I found a smallish unit from a local supplier. Inquired about safety, etc and as PJS mentioned they should all be stabalized and coated to prevent eye damage :thumb:

 

my apologies for the thread resurrection, but check this out if you are looking into metal halide fixtures.

Amazon.com: Hang-A-Light HL400PS 400w Pulse Start Metal Halide 24-Inch Tall Temporary Work Light, Yellow: Home Improvement

 

on the subject. anybody ever tried constructing HID set up for lights? i have many car 35W hid bulbs and have spare ballast. output on those are about 3200 lumens, 55W bulbs outputs about 800-1000 lumens(9006 auto bulb). since life span on those is about 2000 hours minimum and temp is about 4300K

 

there is actually alot of information concerning hid lighting on aquarium forums. i saw a few people construct their own metal halide fixtures by searching "aquarium metal halide".