I designed and built a chandelier for my new home. It’s pretty neat, it’s an orb, and on the outside of it, are all of the things that I like, including the face of every cat that I’ve ever had.
It has a point light source at its core right now, which is a G9 bulb at 100 watts which was bright and gave reasonably sharp shadows as it’s close to a point light.
I’m hoping however to be able to upgrade this somehow. I have an e27 socket at the other end that I’m not using. But I could certainly change this out for any other socket.
The shadows right now are sort of sharp. But I showed a picture of what they look like up close.
Basically I need the brightest possible bulb with the smallest possible filament or arc size. But I obviously can’t use anything that produces UV or would otherwise be harmful to be exposing guests or myself to.
The chandelier is hung from a winch in the ceiling built into the attic that can hold about 1500 lb. So I can raise and lower it without any real difficulty. When it connects at the top, it magnetically locks on and transmits power. So when I bring it down, it’s temporarily disconnected, but if I really needed to, I could jumper power to it for testing.
It works, but it doesn’t work as well as I would have liked it to, and so I figured I might as well request help from some experts!
(Yes I know some of the projected images are backwards. When the orb was assembled, everything was assembled facing the normal direction without thinking about it. I’d have to unweld it now which is not worth the effort so I’ve just come to peace with it. It still looks cool)
Aris said:
Find a bright cheap LED lamp and crack open the diffuser and try that maybe.
That will not work. It would have to be a single led. Even then it would only project to half of the sphere.
It has to be some sort of arc lamp or very small filament. Something that throws in 360° but originates at a single point. That’s the physics of how this thing works. I just can’t seem to find anything easy to use over 100 watts which is what I currently have in the G9 socket.
The chain and power cord look like they don’t really fit the theme.
Edit:
As I understand these are very close to point sources and available in high power, which is why they are used in projectors. There’s a number of problems in using them, but it might be feasible to work around them. You might have to pay someone with suitable expertise. These links have some interesting info.
@Bevin
The main issue with using one of these is ultraviolet output. These things produce light like the sun. As a result, looking at them would be dangerous to your eyes. It’s one thing when it’s projected onto a screen and then reflected, but another to look directly at the filament.
That is just cool ! Unfortunately, I cannot really help you with a source (I would use a low wattage metal halide, but that is somewhat finicky as you need to find a suitable lamp and protective globe, as well as a place to house a ballast).
Question for you : Did you do any calculations regarding room size and the shadow “focus” ? I have considered building something along these lines, however, I didn’t get to it yet.
@Marley
That might be a viable option. I’ve got to see how much of that filament gets hot. Is it just that central part or the rest as well emitting light?
Reagan said: @Marley
That might be a viable option. I’ve got to see how much of that filament gets hot. Is it just that central part or the rest as well emitting light?
I’m not sure. I’m not a product expert. 500 watts is a high wattage and a lamp like this im guessing should be in a fixture rated to house it.
Edit: The spec sheet says this should be in a fixture rated to house it.
