Sylvania Reptistar Halogen PAR30 Gold Infrared

Following the launch of Sylvania's mains halogen PAR lamps to deliver improved performance vs blown reflector lamps in accent and display lighting, they began to find a number of special applications. They became particularly popular as a source of both light and heat in terraria, to keep cold-blooded reptiles warm in captivity. Shattering of lamps is an occasional problem in this application, due to splashes of cold liquids on the hot glass, and the heavy borosilicate envelope of the PAR lamps proved to be more suitable.

One of the drawbacks of standard aluminised reflector lamps in terraria is the relatively high luminous intensity needed to achieve a given heat flux. The present lamp overcomes that limitation by changing from aluminium to a gold mirror.

The coating is made by sputtering a thin layer of 24ct gold onto the glass reflector - the gold having improved infrared reflectivity and reduced visible reflectivity, to achieve a better heat:light balance. The lighted photo shows a curious phenomenon of thin gold films : their transmission of blue-green light. The illuminated filament can just be seen through the reflector. The transmission decreases somewhat as the coating heats up, but the great optical depth of gold films means that a rater thick coating of at least 70nm is needed to form a satisfactory reflector - whereas with aluminium very thin films of just 10nm are opaque to visible light. The great thickness of gold required made these lamps rather expensive and limited their success. A later development employed a much thinner gold reflector ontop of an aluminium layer, but customers were less happy with the visual appearance of those lamps. Consequently the product was withdrawn from sale after just a few years.

Manufacturer:	Sylvania Lighting International
Lamp Power:	90 Watts
Lamp Voltage:	120 Volts
Lamp Current:	0.75 Amperes
Cap Type:	E26s/25	Ni plated brass + vitrite
Bulb Type:	PAR-95S	PAR-30S in eighths/inch
Bulb Finish:	Gold coated reflector	Borosilicate glass
Filament Type:	CC-8	Coiled-Coil Axial
Atmosphere:	Br₂ + PH₃ + SiH₄ in Kr	Outer: Air
Luminous Flux:	N/A
Luminous Efficacy:	N/A
Beam Intensity:	N/A
Beam Distribution:	10° to 50% peak
Colour Temperature & CRI:	CCT:	CRI:
Chromaticity Co-ordinates:	CCx:	CCy:
Rated Lifetime:	2500h
Burning Position:	Universal
Overall Length:	127 mm	6 inches
Light Centre Length:	83 mm	3¼ inches
Factory:	Tienen	Belgium
Date of Manufacture:	2006
Original Value:	Engineering Sample


References:	1) Sylvania Labs Provisional Data.