How Much Heat will a 1800 Watt Bulb Produce

heatheatsinkpower electronicswatts

I plan on placing a Metal Halide 1800 watt bulb 20 inches in front of me (not exactly in front but over my head) – will this produce more heat than I can handle?

Someone said the question was vague so I'm adding details: The purpose of this experiment is to generate 40,000 lux of light in my immediate surroundings (basically to reproduce outside lighting conditions indoors). This is why the bulbs need to be placed so close to me. If I had put it 40 inches away, for example, perhaps there'd be less heat to deal with, but the amount of light reaching me would be cut in half which means I'd need to add more bulbs. With more bulbs I would have more heat and (I guess) run into the same problem?

Thanks

Best Answer

1800 Watts at 25% efficiency means 75% is wasted or 1350 watts is being radiated as heat. Let's be very very inaccurate and say 1/4 of that heat is heading towards you. That's 337 watts of direct heat to you. The human body produces 100 watts of heat on its own. You've just added 3X that amount.

If you're already in a room temperature environment (70F), then yes, you'll get toasty fast. If you're in a 40-50 degree room, it might actually be somewhat comfortable on your face, although your feet will probably go numb.

Keep in mind that these numbers are extremely rough and there's a lot of guestimates in here. I would say my margin of error may be around +-100%...

Ask a vague question...get a vague answer I guess. Hope it helps a little though.