I'm not aware of any colored lens PAR 38 units available in 120 Watt. But between 90w and 120w halogen that's about seeming to be the standard replacement for the old 150w incandescent standard to the industry. Outputs are so wide spread that it's hard to lock down one specific wattage that's most similar.
Can you fill me in on who makes such a 120w lamp? (You must understand that while not complete, when someone tells me a lamp I don't have a note on I go into panic mode.)
In any case, putting out more light is not something that you are going to be able to do more than observe and decide upon with application. Most colored lens lamps don't list output, much less transmission levels which would be compariable to a gel swatch book after the lamp is colored for some reason. They probably kind of figure, here is a red light, it's lighting Santa. Those lighting Santa don't care about center beam candle power as it were, much less it's color temperature at the filament or transmission ratio. I expect most home owners would not understand such things, they just want a red and green lamp. I'm noting the Brown lamps from GE are discontinued for instance.
Here is what to think about in colored verses gelled PAR fixtures:
First, a lamp with a dichroic filter is going to be more pure in transmitting the primary color than any gel. Dichroic filters provide a much more vibrant light source because it's not just attempting to be blocking light, it's reflecting it back and very much more keyed in to blocking all but a refined amount similar to that specific color desired. In other words, it kind of enhanses the color of light given off. Almost the differenced between a freshly washed and waxed car that's Red and one that is still red but has not been bathed for a few months.
Thus should you go with say a 150PAR/FL/A from GE or Osram it's going to be many more times more intense a color than any amber gelled or amber coated/lensed lamp on the market, even those at higher wattages. There is a big difference between a amber lens and a dichroic amber lens.
After this, a gel is going to have to be replaced eventually especially if left on too long especially if saturated, not to mention will rip/tear fade as above and be another part to add to your install man-hours in gelling the fixtures. On the other hand, with a gel you can easily key in your desired exact designed color to your intent between various saturation levels of the gel and brands making it. It will also be much easier to compensate for amber shift and install Improved color temperature or color correcting lamps into it. A normal colored lamp - in not being dichroic colored can probably be considered a primary color in gel and fairly dark, but for the most part, it's transmission level won't be listed, much less you can't adjust to your needs. The lamp itself in output will probably be that of the average MFL output on that lamp for their most normal line of lamps and a best guess would be about 40 to 20% transmission.
That said, the colored lamp is not going to do it's normal gel melt down over time and will be cheaper than going glass or dichroic glass filter added to the fixture over the life of it's use. Also such lamps are available in giving some kind of safety for it's now being a coated lens as opposed to glass filter even if you can also get silicone coated lamps in general but still a perminant colored filter will be fragile all by itself.
I would say, if your colored lamps in being non-dichroic match up with the intent of gel anyway, the colored lamps in the long run will be more cost effective. On the other hand, once you have a colored lamp, you are locked into just that color. If a Blue goes out, you have to stock another blue lamp in addition to the rest of the colors. In that way it adds up. Also the above safety coated silicone lamps will probably be cheaper without also adding the coloration to it.
Dichroic colored lamps are amazing, After that, if you can go with say a Philips Di-Optic reflector type lamp - colored or not, or one otherwise with added efficiency - colored or not, without it being a "Watts Miser" which really was not added efficiency, must less wattage, just less cost due to the wattage than you are all around good. Might even compensate with a higher wattage lamp on Red given it should have a slightly lower transmission ratio than say a Amber.
In addition to this, the normal 100w colored lamp is only available in flood. You can get some wide flood types in 150w, but that's over your intended wattage. Should your intent to be to have a spot beam in your PAR 38, or a wattage and focus range in general, you might have to go with a gel in front of the lamp.
Anyway, so far I don't see any 120w colored lamps. After that be it dichroic or normal colored is a choice as with the actual beam spread needed and wattage needed.
Should you need more help or are totally confused you are welcome to contact me off line for actual lamp specs, but I hope it was good enough to give you some ammo to look at to start with.
Author
Topic: Lamps and FIlters: PAR38 / Bulgin plugs : UK (Read 3644 times)