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Lucalox lamps provide 68 to 130
lumens per watt, depending on the wattage. Twice that of mercury lamps and seven times more than
that of incandescent lamps. The light output is the same for horizontal and vertical burning
positions. Lucalox lamps are available in wattages of 50, 70, 100, 110, 150, 215, 250, 400, 600 and
1000W. The rated average life of standard Lucalox is 28,500 hours.
Types of Lucalox Lamp
There are five basic types of
Lucalox lamp:
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Standard Lucalox
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Lucalox Classique
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Lucalox XL
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Lucalox Superlife
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Lucalox E-Z Lux
Standard Lucalox Lamps
These have greatest range of wattages from 50W to 1000W. The bulb shapes are diffuse
elliptical or clear tubular.
Lucalox Classique (or Deluxe)
Lucalox Classique provides better colour rendering with slightly reduced light output and
shorter life (14,000 hours). The wattage range is 150W - 400W. They are available in elliptical and
tubular bulb shapes.
Lucalox HO
Lucalox HO gives increased light output and the similar life as standard Lucalox. The colour
is slightly greener than that of Standard Lucalox because of the increased xenon gas pressure so it
is normally used for exterior lighting of roads, floodlighting, security lighting and the like. The
wattage range is 50-400W.
Note that the HO lamp is slightly
more difficult to strike and so it is important to ensure the control gear includes an ignitor
suitable for HO lamps.
Lucalox Superlife
The Superlife lamp range is rated at 55,000 hours average life. This is the longest average
life of any commercially available lamp for area lighting. The lamp has two standard Lucalox
external reservoir arc tubes, electrically and physically in parallel. The arc tubes more or less
take turns in starting, although there is no switching mechanism. The alternate operation occurs
because, when two gas discharge tubes are connected in parallel, at a sufficiently high voltage,
one tube will always start to pass current before the other. Once passing current, the voltage
across the conducting tube falls to a very low level, preventing the remaining tube from
conducting. With single arc tube High Pressure Sodium lamps, every time the lamp is started, it
becomes slightly more difficult to start. When, as with Superlife, two arc tubes are present, one
arc tube will start preferentially until it’s companion is the easiest to start, which then takes
over. This shared alternate operation continues until one or the other arc tube fails. On average,
each arc tube will operate for 50% of the lamp nominal life, almost doubling the effective lamp
survival. Superlife lamps are available in the following ranges:
Tubular and Elliptical
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50W
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70W
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100W
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150W
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250W
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400W
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