In the lighting market, doubts are frequently perplexed by the various types of light sources. They struggle to choose from various light source lamps and often find it challenging to determine which lamp best suits their project. LED and metal halide lamps are two common choices, especially in large outdoor projects. Today, we will conduct an in-depth comparison of LED vs metal halide and analyze how they can be adapted or transformed for various purposes.
What is a metal halide lamp?
The metal halide lamp is a discharge lamp that produces arc discharge in the mixed vapor of mercury and rare metal halide. The metal halide lamp is a discharge lamp made by adding various metal halides to the high-pressure mercury lamp. Generation light source. The lighting adopts a sodium scandium metal halide lamp. The metal halide lamp has the characteristics of high luminous efficiency, good color rendering performance, and long life. It is a light source close to daylight.
What are the characteristics of metal halide lamps?
- High light efficiency: The metal halide light efficiency is as high as 80～120Lm/W. Compared with other traditional lamps such as CFL, incandescent lamps, fluorescent, or HPS, they have advantages in light efficiency.
- High CRI: Because the spectrum of the metal halide lamp is based on the continuous spectrum superimposed on the dense linear spectrum, the color rendering index is particularly high, that is, the color reproduction is particularly good, and the Ra can reach 90. In addition, the color temperature of the metal halide lamp is high, up to 5000~6000K, and the special projector lamp can reach 7000~20000K. Under the same brightness conditions, the higher the color temperature, the brighter the human eye feels.
- Easier to be replaced: E27/E40 Base, it is easy to do installation and replacements even if there is any broken or burned, saving much more Maintenance costs.
What are the disadvantages of metal halide lamps?
- Not environmentally friendly: The metal halide lamps on the market are the same as other gas discharge lamps. The filling of the lamp contains mercury. Mercury is a toxic substance. When the lamp is filled with mercury, careless handling will cause pollution to the production environment. Damage to the health of workers. When the arc tube is exhausted, a small amount of mercury vapor will be emitted. If it is not handled properly, it will be directly discharged into the atmosphere. When the lamp used is damaged, it will pollute the environment.
- Fragile: The metal halide lamp is a lamp with glass as the main shell, which is very easy to break and not easy to transport.
- Long startup time: A metal halide lamp is a kind of cold light source and cannot realize an instantaneous startup. It takes 5-20 minutes to warm up before the lamp works normally. At the same time, after turning off the lamp, it takes 10-15 minutes to cool down before it can be started again.
- Low light utilization. The light efficiency of the metal halide lamp reaches about 100Lm/w, which looks similar to that of the LED light source. However, because the metal halide lamp is a 360-degree luminous body, coupled with the light loss of the lamp cover, the actual output light effect is only 50% or even lower than the initial light effect.
Applications of metal halide lamp
Metal halide lamps are suitable for large-scale spaces that require high illumination and good color rendering, such as stadiums, art galleries, exhibition halls, large shopping malls, industrial plants, street squares, stations, docks, and other places. The method of mixed light illumination can obtain high luminous efficiency, and the light color can also be improved. It is suitable for street lighting and bustling street lighting. Floodlight or high pole lighting, high pole lighting can be installed in overpasses, squares, stations, docks, etc.
What is LED?
LED (Light Emitting Diode), a light-emitting diode is a solid-state semiconductor device that can convert electrical energy into visible light. It can directly convert electricity into light. The heart of the LED is a semiconductor chip, one end of the chip is attached to a bracket, one end is the negative pole, and the other is connected to the positive pole of the power supply so that the entire chip is encapsulated by epoxy resin. LED can directly emit red, yellow, blue, green, cyan, orange, purple, and white light. LED lamps are lighting equipment that uses LEDs as light sources inside some shells.
What are the characteristics of LED lamps?
- Energy-saving and environmental protection: At present, the actual effective luminous efficiency of LED lamps is basically 100-150lm/W. Compared with metal halide lamps, it can save at least 60% of energy. At the same time, it does not contain lead, mercury, and other polluting elements, which are not harmful to the environment. Any pollution is truly green. Most of the used LED lamps can be recycled and reused.
- Long life: The theoretical life of the LED lamp is 50000 hours. The actual working time is at least 10 years. The traditional metal halide lamps, HPS, and incandescent lamps generally have a service life of about 2 years.
- The forms of lamps are diversified: LED can be made into lighting lamps with E27, and E40 lamp caps, used to directly replace traditional E27, and E40 metal halide lamps, HPS lamps, etc., and can also be made into lighting equipment integrated with the lamp housing, Such as outdoor led floodlights, SMD downlights, UFO high bay led light, led street lamps etc.
- Integrated design of lens and lampshade. The lens has the functions of light-gathering and protection at the same time, avoiding the repeated waste of light and making the product more concise and beautiful.
What are the disadvantages of LED lamps?
- The initial purchase cost is high. Among the lamps with the same effective luminous efficiency, LED lamps are the most expensive. For some projects with cost budgets, this may be the biggest reason why they refuse to choose LED lights. However, as the technology of the LED industry continues to mature, the price of LED lamps has been declining in recent years. The price of some indoor lamps such as E27 LED bulbs has been close to or even equal to the price of the traditional E27 CFL.
- Some LED lamps are not easy to repair. The forms of LED lamps on the market are very diverse. Some lamps are designed to be integrated, and the light source is directly fixed inside the shell, such as floodlights. Once the LED Chips have problems, such as burnout or flickering, it is inconvenient to detect and replace them.
Application for LED lights
Whether it is a narrow space or a large place, LED lights can be used in almost all places, indoor, outdoor, emergency, landscape, industrial, commercial, and civilian use.
Detailed led vs metal halide comparison chart
| Type | Metal halide lamp | LED |
| Power | 150W 250W 400W 1000W 1500W 2000W | Range from 1W to 1000W |
| Input voltage | Mostly 110V, or only 220VAC 50/60Hz | AC100-240V 50/60Hz. DC12V/24V/36V/48V optional |
| Original Lumens | 80-100lm/W | 100-150lm/W |
| Effective lumens | 40-50lm/W.Halide lamps with 360-degree beam angle, which means half of the light is not working. | 100-140lm/w.Mostly all lights from LED chips can be used perfectly without any loss or only a little loss. |
| Color temperature | Most of them are 5000K.The other color temperature is not easy to do | Generally 3000K,4500k,6500K 2500K,8000K, Yellow, red, blue, green available as well. |
| Light source | Toxic gas | Solid led chips |
| Color rendering index | CRI90-99 | CRI65-90 |
| Beam angle | 360˚. Glowing from all sides is not conducive to the effective use of all light, resulting in a lot of light waste. | 180˚. It is to let all the emitted light be used as much as possible. |
| Friendly | No | Yes |
| Start-up time | 10-20 minutes to warm up, then the lamps can be working normally. | Instant up. |
| Light decay | The metal halide light decay is large: the average luminous decay reaches 17% in 500 hours. The average light decay reaches 25.2% in 1000 hours | The luminous decay of LED is 0 for 1000 hours. 3000 hours light attenuation is 1% 10000 hours light attenuation is 3% |
| Lifespan | 6000-8000Hrs. | 50000Hrs.the actual lifetime is 5years at least. |
| Cost | Cheap. | Higher |
| IK Rating | IK00, The metal halide light source is a glass body, so it has no shock resistance. Very inconvenient to transport | IK07.It is stronger shock resistance. |
| Warranty | 1-2Years | 3-10years according to requirements |
Through the above analysis and comparison, we can see that compared with metal halide lamps, LED lamps have obvious advantages in all aspects. At the same time, with the continuous development of LED lighting industry technology and the continuous decline of prices. LED lamps have gradually become the best choice when updating traditional lamps and choosing new lighting equipment. When replacing metal halide lamps, many people will ask: What is the LED equivalent of a metal halide lamp?
Metal halide to led conversion chart
From the above table, some people may have doubts about effective lumens. The effective lumens of metal halide lamp is different from the original lumens. Metal halide lamps’ original lumens are about 80-100lm/W, however, their effective lumens are only 40-50lm/W/W. Why?
The metal halide lamp (HID) is 360° luminous. When it irradiates one side, only half of the light it emits can be irradiated to the opposite side, and the other half of the light is not highly utilized and belongs to light loss. Welcome to inquiry us if there are any other questions or projects that need to do lighting replacements or retrofits.
Frequently Asked Question
Hello, customers
My name is Ricky Wang, I’m the business manager of GRNLED. I have been in LED lights industry for more than 10 year. Feel free to contact us. I’m happy to provide you the best service and products.
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