The twin arc metal halide lamp from Advanced Lighting Solutions was one of the most exciting and innovative product unveiled at the Marine Aquarium Expo this past weekend. The twin arc lamps are about the length of a standard 400w mogul base metal halide lamp but they include two separate arc tubes within the lamp envelope. The arc tubes of the Twinarc do not fire simultaneously but instead, they are fired in alternation each time the lamp is turned on and off. We spent a good half hour turning this lamp on and off and we can tell you it is an amazing thing to see this lamp fire up the “other” arc tube again and again. Although a typical lamp would take 15 or more minutes to cool down and fire again, the off-duty arc tube only warms up a little bit by comparison and the Twinarc is ready to fire up again in a couple minutes. The Twinarc will be available only as a mogul base bulb in 250w and 400w sizes with a dual 20K flavor for extended lamp life and a 10K/20K combo which will alternate between intensity and color. How ALS can basically offer two bulbs for the price of one at $99 is beyond us but we are very excited to see the bulbs put to creative use. Advanced Lighting Solutions will be developing a special pendant to accomodate the spaced out lamp arcs to keep the arc tubes in the sweet spot of the reflector. The bulbs should be available in 6 weeks and they will be hitting the Marine Depot and Premium Aquatic websites as soon as they are available. We’ll have the exclusive on the spectral graphs of the Twinarc in a couple weeks, follow the link for more pics of the amazing Twinarc lamp from ALS.
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