20kW Light Is As Bright As You’d Expect

[Photonicinduction] purchased a very very bright light. This 20,000 Watt half meter tall halogen will just about light the back of a person’s skull with their eyes closed. These are typically used to light film sets.

Most people couldn’t even turn such a light on, but [Photonicinduction] is a mad scientist. Making lightning in his attic, it’s easy to mentally picture him as the villain in a Sherlock Holmes novel. Luckily for us, if he has any evil tendencies, they are channeled into YouTube videos.

He gives a good description of the mechanical and electrical properties of the light. The body is as one would expect for an incandescent light. A glass filament envelope with the filaments supported within. The envelope is evacuated and filled with an appropriate gas. This light is dangerous enough that the outside must be thoroughly cleaned of fingerprints to keep a hot-spot from forming, which could cause the lamp to explode.

After some work, he managed to convince himself that the filaments within were not, in fact, garage door springs, and gave a demonstration of their properties. For example, their resistance goes up as they are heated. In order to keep from tripping the power supply, filaments this large must be preheated. Failure to do so passes a very large number of amps.

The next step was to hook the lamp up to his home-made 20 kW power supply. He gives a good demonstration of just how bright it is. Within seconds he’s sweating from the heat and definitely can’t even open his eyes to see with the tiny sun occupying the center of his abode. Video after the break.

37 thoughts on “20kW Light Is As Bright As You’d Expect

  1. Nice…. so I’ll be needing 6 to induce the tube… and they’ll take double the power pulsed right? ….. I’ve just had this awesome idea for converting a Chevy Volt into a laser cannon.

      1. The french got it right! As far as i see we use these lamps on lighthouses. but you could also use them on underground/protected/space gardens for a total of 10-20square meters, couldn’t you? The sun is only at around 1.4kw per square meter

    1. He has a video of running a huge high pressure xenon lamp from an inverter welder at max of what the welder can give…given the higher efficiency AND efficacy of HP xenon, that was probably brighter…

  2. I had the CC (automagic YouTube parsing) up on the screen, and it’s interesting what it made of his accent… Yes, “that’s a lot of hate” coming off that tube, enough to drive you out of the room.

    1. That’s brilliant – I just turned it on and got: “It’s like having a bum fly me to the moon” (“it’s like having a bonfire in the room” for those that couldn’t understand his accent)

  3. I have to wonder where [Photon] got that big, bad bulb and for how much. I’ve seen them for as little as $1800 and as much as $6000 online, and I can’t imagine that even he would be willing to pay THAT much for a cool light show. Then again, this is [Photonicinduction] we’re talking about…

    Oh, and kudos to [Packrat] and [Sheldon] for suggesting turning on the YouTube CCs. I needed the laugh.

  4. Someone should tell him that the projector on his wall should be mounted upside down so it does not have to be at a nasty steep angle with a ton of adjustment. Those cheap portable projectors are designed to sit on a low table or be upside down on the ceiling or wall.

    1. In the US, houses are commonly equipped with 100A service (or at least 200A if using electric heating, cooking, hot water), at 240/120V split-phase. 100A x 240V = 24kW right there; just shut off enough other stuff to keep it below that.

  5. i always wondered what it would be like taking a slow stroll through a (thick) forest at night (in the dark) and suddenly THIS thing switches on, slightly off the path/trail …

    quite the sh*** and giggles :D

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